Design firm Chute Gerdeman purchased

Columbus-based retailstore design firm Chute Gerdeman has been bought by marketing firm FCB Chicago.

Financial details were not disclosed.

The deal means that Chute Gerdeman will be part of FCB Chicago’s retail and shopper marketing division, FCB/RED. However, Chute Gerdeman will retain its name and Columbus office, as well as its strategic, creative and implementation teams.

Chute Gerdeman has 70 employees in Columbus. FCB has 700 employees in Chicago but many more around the world.

FCB/RED offers its clients expertise in retail marketing and has often worked with third-party teams to provide full store design. That includes Chute Gerdeman, with which FCB/RED first worked in 2016, a relationship that has continued.

FCB Chicago’s newly expanded retail and shopper marketing division will be led by Tina Manikas, president of FCB/RED.

“We’re thrilled to have the Chute Gerdeman team come together with our retail and shopper marketing division,” Manikas said in a statement.

Denny Gerdeman, chairman of Chute Gerdeman, will remain with the company. He said in a statement that creating the firm and growing it “has been my life’s work.”

“The people here have been essential to its success and I owe it to them to ensure a path forward,” he said. “FCB/RED acquiring Chute Gerdeman creates a way to do just that. This is an opportunity for our team to expand their already vast retail and restaurant knowledge all while exposing them to new methods of strategy and design.”

Since its founding in 1989 by Elle Chute and Gerdeman, Chute Gerdeman has created retail store designs for hundreds of brands.

Clients include Wendy’s, Best Buy, TJ Maxx, Bob Evans, Whole Foods, Verizon, Domino’s and Kay Jewelers.