Yellow M bosses say liquidation will not hit MBO
As The Drum went to press it was announced that Yellow M in Newcastle had gone into liquidation.
However, bosses at Yellow M Edinburgh have said that it will not effect the Edinburgh agency, which is set up as a separate trading entity and which is at the centre of a management buyout being headed up by MD Ian Wright.
He said: “Although the two agencies were part of the same group, they were separate companies in their own right, under separate ownership and there was very little contact between them.”
According to industry sources in Newcastle staff at the agency, which number around 20, have been contacting other agencies in the city looking for work since being told earlier this week that the agency is to close.
For some time speculation has suggested the Newcastle office has been in some trouble and its major client, Car Land, is believed to have pulled its £4m ad account out of the agency last week.
In 2001 it came to light that the agency had 34 County Court Judgements against it, totalling £83,822, though at the time chief executive Mike Dethick said all creditors would be paid. The company’s ICC credit rating was also suspended at this time.
Yellow M was founded in Newcastle in 1992 by Dethick who expanded the agency into Scotland in 1998 opening an office on Edinburgh’s Albany Street to handle clients such as the Dunfermline Building Society, ASH and Scottish National Heritage. The Scottish office went on to pick up work for the Conservative Party, which prompted an expansion into London, though that office was closed once the election was over.
Dethick’s future plans are not known, though it has been speculated by industry insiders that he could be preparing to set up a new television production company, possibly called Gorilla.
Dethick was not available to comment as The Drum went to press.