Beattie Media key executive quits role in Glasgow office

ONE of Beattie Media’s most senior executives, Glasgow office managing director Nicola Tennant, has stepped down from her post.

Beattie, Scotland’s largest independent PR company, stressed that Tennant, a former journalist who joined the company around six years ago, was still currently an employee and director of the agency but did not want to comment further on the reasons behind the decision or her future.

The spokesman also stressed the agency’s founder Gordon Beattie was based at the firm’s Glasgow headquarters and would continue with his role of overseeing the operation there.

Tennant was said to be on holiday in Spain and unavailable for comment. Managing director Beattie is also away.

The news of her departure from the role comes amid mixed fortunes for the agency.

Last month it won a contract from Scottish Enterprise to handle public relations in the Borders, Dumfries and Galloway, Edinburgh and Lothian areas.

The agency also recently won a six-figure contract to handle public relations for the Clydesdale Bank.

But those deals came shortly after it lost a reported 1.5m contract with Bank of Scotland, which decided to ditch external agencies and bring PR in-house.

The firm also recently lost a 1m contract with US computer firm Hewlett-Packard.

At the time of the Clydesdale deal, Beattie said the company was chasing "three or four major contracts" and that since the start of the year it had won 500,000 worth of new business.

But the industry as a whole is going through tough times. Public relations and marketing are generally among the first areas to be scaled back when companies need to tighten budgets.

The continuing poor performance of the equity markets has resulted in a number of big name firms cutting back on their PR requirements.

Last year Beattie Media increased turnover by 28% to 7.7m but saw profits slump after investing heavily in expansion and a new employee benefits trust for longer-serving staff.

Pre-tax profits fell from around 1m to 280,000 and the company made an after-tax loss of 600,000 following the transfer of an undisclosed amount to the new trust.

Last November, Beattie’s financial PR arm took on 20 new clients after poaching a director from a rival firm.

Clients he has taken with him include the e-learning group Epic, the conservatory roofing firm Ultraframe and Glisten, the confectionery manufacturer.

The move significantly increased Beattie Financial's quoted client list to about 50, although the new clients were relatively small.