Kantar 'To Cut 300 Jobs in US'

Kantar is planning to cut around ten percent of its US staff due to the impact of the pandemic, according to online reports.

News web site businessinsider.com said North American CEO Reed Cundiff announced the job losses in a town hall meeting on Monday, with around 300 people impacted. The site said a Kantar spokesman 'acknowledged the coming cuts but wouldn't confirm the scope', adding: 'Like many companies, Kantar has felt the economic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. We are making changes to our business now, unfortunately including redundancies, to ensure we rebound in a stronger position, capable of sustainable growth. The changes we are making are focused on building a faster, simpler organisation that allows us to allocate resources to our growth and innovation priorities'.

WPP shareholders approved the sale of 60% of Kantar to private equity firm Bain Capital last October, in a deal which valued the whole of Kantar at around £3.2bn ($4.0bn). Long-time CEO Eric Salama stepped down shortly after, with high profile exec Adam Crozier coming in as Chairman in February. The group was said to have funds for acquisition and in March, before the true impact of Covid was apparent, it began with buying digital marketing and analytics consultancy Mavens of London for an undisclosed sum. Recent high profile launches have helped buoy the company, including Project Moonshot', described as 'a major milestone' on the road to an advanced independent platform for measuring ad effectiveness, in July; and Accelerated Answers, which promises to deliver 'real insights from real consumers' in as little as six hours, in August.

Cundiff joined the company in May last year as Chief Executive Officer, North America Region after fourteen years at Microsoft, most of them as General Manager of Customer and Market Research.

Web site: www.kantar.com .

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.