This year represents a remarkable milestone for Scotland’s longest-established creative marketing agency, Aberdeen-based Mearns & Gill, as they celebrate 80 years in business and a change in ownership.
Michael Wilson has acquired the company for an undisclosed sum after joining as Managing Director in February.
Departing Managing Director, Alan Mearns, said: “After my near-40 years in the industry, it felt like the perfect time to pass the family business on to a new custodian. With his integrity and passion for delivering a quality service, I am delighted to be handing over to Michael who shares the values we have always believed in over the decades.” Alan & his wife Tania will continue to support the business in consultancy roles.
Michael’s role prior to joining Mearns & Gill was Commercial Director with William Wilson, the local distributor of plumbing & heating supplies which included responsibility for the company’s marketing activity. Michael’s experience of his own family business, founded in 1900 and acquired by Wolseley in 2005, brings many synergies for driving forward at Mearns & Gill.
Michael added: “I’m very excited to be taking the helm of such an established and well-respected business. I have always been impressed with the team, their creativity and commitment, and their dedication to providing clients with the highest standards of service. I look forward very much, with the support of the committed team, to evolving the company in the years ahead and to building on the reputation that generations of the Mearns family have worked so hard to establish and sustain.”
Operations Director, Suzanne Robertson, who has been part of the Mearns & Gill team for the past 10 years, comments: “I’m delighted Michael has joined at such an important milestone. Longevity is a key trait at Mearns & Gill, with a number of clients remaining with the agency for over 30 years. An established customer base combined with recently won contracts and new business opportunities, gives the management team additional confidence in future success.”
Established in 1936, Mearns & Gill provides creative marketing solutions across a wide range of disciplines, including brand, digital, print and event management, with a turnover of more than £1.25million in the year to February, 2016.