We just announced the acquisition of a great little food and health specialist PR firm in the Netherlands. The release is below:
Edelman Acquires Hinfelaar PR
October 7, 2010 (Amsterdam) – Edelman, the world’s largest independent public relations firm, acquired Hinfelaar PR, Life & Health Communications, a leading Dutch firm in health and food communications. Hinfelaar strengthens Edelman’s position as one of the largest PR agencies in the Netherlands with 50 professionals and revenues in excess of 4.2M Euros and bolsters the fast-growing health, food and consumer practices, which are also Edelman’s largest global practices. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
“Our new colleagues broaden and deepen our existing expertise in the health, food and consumer arena and bring highly-regarded health public affairs capabilities,” said Annemieke Kievit, general manager, Edelman Amsterdam. “The team is one of the most creative and strategic I have ever met, and they bring a proven record of building brands and corporations to our firm.”
Marc Hinfelaar, who founded the firm in 1998, will join the management team of Edelman Amsterdam and will lead the combined consumer, health and food teams at the Dutch offices in Amsterdam and Baarn.
“This combination provides our clients and employees with access to one of the world’s largest global PR networks, creativity, and proprietary knowledge such as Edelman’s goodpurpose™, Health Engagement and Trust Barometer, as well as world-leading capabilities such as Digital and CSR,” said Hinfelaar. “Our visions of public relations, talent development and entrepreneurship match very well. We link business, consumer, media, governments and institutions in order to advance business and societal goals. Combining our growing firms makes perfect business sense.”
The Hinfelaar team of seven professionals currently supports leading pharmaceutical and healthcare companies including Boehringer Ingelheim and European Charot Foundation and nutritional companies including Voorlichtingsbureau Brood and Tivall. Edelman Amsterdam’s clients include LinkedIn, Microsoft, PepsiCo, Shell and Starbucks and within the health division MerckSerono, MSD, Chefaro and Astellas. Hinfelaar also currently supports several of Edelman’s clients including AstraZeneca, Novartis, Pfizer and Wyeth.
Besides food, health and consumer brands, Edelman Amsterdam also has strong corporate and technology divisions and operates as a pan-European hub for several clients.
“Hinfelaar gives us the ability to hub significant regional and global health business out of Amsterdam through our network of health specialists around the world in addition to the great local work done by Mark and his team. We are delighted to welcome them all to the Edelman family,” said David Brain, president and CEO, Edelman EMEA.
The acquisition marks Edelman’s fourth of the year. The firm acquired Significa, a leading Brazilian brand and CSR firm, and Texas-based Vollmer last month, as well as The Centre, a public affairs firm in Brussels in March.
Edelman’s Dutch office, located at Zuidas in Amsterdam, employs 50 communications professionals in various specialist teams: Corporate, Consumer Brands, Healthcare and Technology. This year, Edelman Amsterdam won a golden Sabre award for the Dettol campaign for Reckitt Benckiser. Edelman is experienced in developing, planning and executing corporate, crisis and marketing communications programs for (inter)national companies and organizations. For more information: http://www.edelmanpr.nl.
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