Fitch To Become Flagship Brand for Cordiant's Global Network of Branding and Design Companies.

Business Editors

COLUMBUS, Ohio--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 4, 2001

Fitch, one of the world's foremost brand design firms, has been designated the flagship brand for all design and branding companies within Cordiant Communications Group.

Nine companies and over 700 employees will belong to the Fitch network, constituting the second largest of its kind in the world. Cordiant is the world's ninth largest marketing services conglomerate and Fitch's parent company.

The constituent companies within the Fitch network will retain their names to capitalize on their respective positions of market preeminence but add the Fitch name as a co-brand. Primo Angeli, for instance, the thirty-year old branding and design consultancy known best for their award-winning packaging design for clients including Intel Corporation, The Coca-Cola Company, Ben & Jerry's, Guinness (Ireland), Sara Lee Corporation and Citibank, will be Primo Angeli-Fitch.

A new Fitch brand is currently being developed for the network--everything from positioning to identity--and when launched internationally December 2001, will represent the unification of Cordiant's high-profile acquisition in July 2000 of the seventeen-company Lighthouse Global Network.

The companies belonging to the Fitch network are AAD, Added Value Design, Bamber Forsyth, Decision Shop, Leonhardt Group, Peclers, Primo Angeli, and PSD.

The next step will be to convert the Bates design subsidiaries located in Norway, Hong Kong, Australia, South Africa and Brazil into fully-fledged Fitch offices. Bates, a leading global advertising and marketing communications network, is the principal operating unit of Cordiant.

Fitch's offer will extend across all aspects of branding and design, providing a broad capability for strategically-informed solutions in six core disciplines: naming and identity, brand communications, environments, packaging, product development, and interactive design. Each discipline will be supported by research and strategy to ensure consistent delivery of the brand idea. Fitch will also offer trends interpretation, specialist styling, and color and materials forecasting.

Paul Stead, CEO of the CCG Branding and Design Division, commented "It is an exciting time to be at the heart of building a real network that brings together a group of dynamic businesses to give clients the broadest design and branding solution available. By our individual agencies adopting a co-brand, it shows the level of commitment we have to making this alliance work. And whilst the current climate is exceptionally difficult, we are well-placed to help clients in need of creative ideas that solve business issues globally, regionally or locally."

Fitch is one of the world's foremost brand design firms, unique in its ability to express brand strategies as products, environments, identities, communications and interactive media. Research-based, user-tested and award-winning, Fitch's strategic design and ongoing brand stewardship have demonstrably improved business for clients such as Iomega, Virgin, Timberland, Pacific Theaters, Burger King, Harley-Davidson, Microsoft, Debenhams (UK), Hewlett Packard, Nortel Networks, and DaimlerChrysler. Fitch has offices in Ann Arbor, Boston, Columbus, Orlando, Phoenix, San Francisco, London, Osaka, Singapore, Hong Kong, Sydney, and Melbourne. Fitch (www.fitch.com) is part of Cordiant Communications Group (www.ccgww.com)

Cordiant Communications Group plc is the world's ninth largest global marketing communications group. With over 10,000 employees in more than 216 offices spanning 80 countries, CCG has the international reach and local expertise to provide clients with a truly global competitive advantage. Cordiant is publicly traded on the New York (CDA) and London (CRI) Stock Exchanges.