The Dublin office of high-profile public relations agency FleishmanHillard, whose clients include the National Lottery, is closing with the loss of around 30 jobs.<\/p>\n
In a surprise move, the agency\u2019s owner, global communications giant Omnicom, announced the closure on Thursday.<\/p>\n
Founded by John Saunders with current general manager Rhona Blake and Julian Davis, Fleishmann is one the Republic\u2019s best-known public relations and communications agencies.<\/p>\n
Omnicom did not respond to a request for comment. Up to 30 jobs could be hit as a result of the move.<\/p>\n
Brian Harrison, chairman of industry body, the Public Relations Consultants Association (PRCA), said the closure marked the end of an important chapter for the Irish communications industry.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile disappointing, this appears to reflect global agency restructuring following international consolidation rather than weakness in the Irish market,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
The closure of long-established public relations agencies is rare in the Republic, Harrison pointed out.<\/p>\n
Staff heard the news on Thursday morning. The move took many by surprise as the business is profitable.<\/p>\n
The Dublin office had been working in recent years on the group\u2019s international clients.<\/p>\n
However, Omnicom has not been investing in its Irish business for several years, according to an industry source.<\/p>\n
Omnicom told trade publication PR Week that it has been reviewing how its global network operates.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs part of that ongoing work, we have made the decision to close the FleishmanHillard Dublin office,\u201d the company said.<\/p>\n
Omnicom added that it would continue supporting clients in Ireland through its broader networks.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are working directly with each client to determine the approach that best meets their individual business needs,\u201d said the group.<\/p>\n
Omnicom confirmed to the publication that it was consulting with staff, noting that this would proceed in accordance with Irish law.<\/p>\n
Saunders is FleishmannHilliard\u2019s chairman. He was global president and chief executive up to October 2024.<\/p>\n
Blake has been running the agency in Ireland for 36 years. Davis retired in 2020.<\/p>\n
Omnicom bought rival Interpublic Group late last year, bringing several public relations businesses into one organisation.<\/p>\n
In December it wound up DDB, the legendary New York ad agency as an independent business and incorporated it into TBWA Worldwide.<\/p>\n
New York-listed Omnicom owns multiple public relations, advertising and communications businesses. The group is worth around $22 billion.<\/p>\n
Harrison said the Republic continued to have a \u201cvibrant, competitive, communications sector\u201d with agencies working for domestic and multi-national clients.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Dublin office of high-profile public relations agency FleishmanHillard, whose clients include the National Lottery, is closing with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":585367,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[72,247168,61,60,9077],"class_list":["post-585366","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-fleishmanhillard","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-national-lottery"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/585366","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=585366"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/585366\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/585367"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=585366"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=585366"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=585366"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}