Beattie has global expansion in its sights

Beattie, the public relations and communications agency, has kicked off the year with plans for international expansion following 2017’s push into Canada.

The firm, which has 12 offices in the UK and Ireland, is seeking to roll out its partnership model which gave it a springboard into Canada.

During 2017, the Londonheadquartered agency established the Beattie Tartan brand in North America and opened three offices in Canada. The group also recruited Kevin Roberts, the former global chairman and chief executive of Saatchi & Saatchi, and Alison Clarke, the former boss of Grayling.

Beattie is said to be eyeing up the possibility of opening an office in the United States, but outside New York.

Since venturing into Canada, the firm has been “swamped” with new business opportunities, especially in British Columbia and Toronto.

Chief executive Laurna Woods said: “Thanks to an ambitious expansion programme, we now have robust businesses in the UK and Canada, an even stronger leadership team and a strategy to roll out our brands into Englishspeaking countries around the globe.

“We have an extensive partner network but we fully intend to expand the Beattie brand into other Anglosphere countries over the next decade. The partnership model is for us much more effective than buying other agencies.”

She said Beattie would continue to form JVS along the lines of Beattie Tartan and 11ten, its education marketing and student recruitment arm. 0 Laurna Woods hailed ‘ambitious expansion’