Creative: Norwegian company calls on Brand8 for global brief; GLR all smiles with dental deal; and more

TOMRA, headquartered in Norway, has appointed Leeds-based Brand8 PR to deliver a global corporate public relations strategy.

TOMRA designs and manufactures sensor-based sorting machines for the recycling, food and mining industries. The company also produces reverse vending machines, where consumers can return used beverage containers and receive an incentive for doing so, such as a cash or a voucher. It has turnover of €650m (£551m) and employs around 2,600 people.

Established in 1972, the company is listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange. Approximately 87,000 of its reverse vending and sorting machines are installed globally across more than 80 countries.

Brand8 PR has been tasked with implementing a strategy to support the achievement of TOMRA’s business objectives. It is being delivered via a range of tactics including enhanced profile raising of key executives along with integrated media relations and content marketing activity.

The agency’s managing director, Rob Smith, has worked with TOMRA’s recycling, food and mining sensor-based sorting system businesses since 2009 so was asked to put forward proposals for the corporate public relations brief.  

Mr Smith said: “We’re immensely proud to have been appointed to handle TOMRA’s global corporate PR brief. It is a worldwide market leader and technology innovator that improves yields from scarce resources, enhances its customers’ profitability and benefits the global environment.”

:::

IT solutions provider Opal has struck a six-figure deal to help a reprographics specialist revamp its IT infrastructure across its UK and overseas operations.

York Repro-Graphic Group (YRG), which has been providing reprographic services for packaging printers and end-user clients since 1974, has teamed up with Opal to carry out the work.   

YRG needed to upgrade its IT facilities to increase the pace of production, meet its future growth projections and cope with a rise in new business from clients. The company turned to Opal, which specialises in the integration of Apple and Microsoft products, for help to build a more efficient, secure and robust IT infrastructure across its six sites.

Opal rebuilt the existing virtualized environments for YRG’s production and office facilities in York and set up a multi-site disaster recovery solution to ensure data would be readily available to the business in the event of network outages, power interruptions or hardware and software failure.

Opal also built an internet security and filtering solution and deployed new wifi network at YRG’s new multi-million-pound site in Cottingham, East Yorkshire, as well as carrying out a comprehensive audit of YRG’s remaining sites, including a base in Ireland and a joint venture operation in Kenya.

Denis Fitzgerald, operations manager at YRG, said: “We carry out large volumes of work for major brand clients as well as directly with printers, and we rely on slick production facilities and technology to meet customer demands.

“With assistance from our new IT provider Opal, the business is now running extremely efficiently. Our production times have decreased, giving us more capacity, there’s much less downtime and our data storage and disaster recovery capabilities are far more robust.

“As a result, we now have a solution that’s an excellent fit for our current and future business needs.”

:::

HEALTHCARE communications specialists GLR Public Relations has secured a contract extension to deliver PR support to one of the largest dental corporates and providers of NHS dental health in the UK, the IDH Group.   

The agency was awarded the contract extension following a successful year supporting the organisation and its newly created brand, mydentist, across a network of more than 650 practices.

Director of marketing Sarah Benton says: “Last year we launched the UK’s first dental brand, mydentist. It was a bold move and we needed to partner with a PR agency that could understand our challenges by having expert industry knowledge, but also the ability to approach our PR with creativity and tenacity.”

Last month, the West Yorkshire based agency announced its expansion with the addition of two new appointments, Helen Spivey as account director and Niamh Hamill as account executive. The agency has also moved to larger premises to accommodate its recent team and client growth.

Joanne Gill, director of GLR Public Relations, said: “This year has been phenomenal for us. We’re extending our existing contracts and building new client relationships at a rapid rate.

“It’s been an exciting time being involved in the evolution of the mydentist brand and we’re thrilled to be a continued part of it.”

:::

CONTENT agency Brawl is supporting its growth plans with the appointment of creative team Lawrence Rippingale and Raphael Pavel.
 
The pair will work across the agency’s international roster of clients that includes 888.com and Superdrug.
 
Mr Rippingale joins with a background in integrated agencies and freelance creative animation while Mr Pavel brings a strong track record of motion graphics, cinematography and digital design.
 
Brodie Harkess, director of content at Brawl, said: “Agencies are built on attracting the best talent and both Lawrence and Raphael have a passion for their work. We look forward to seeing them create great campaigns for our clients in the UK and overseas.”
 
Brawl operates internationally from its offices in Leeds and London.

:::

HULL-based Strawberry has announced a partnership with entrepreneurial community For Entrepreneurs Only (FEO), becoming the latest company to commit its support as a key partner.

The partnership, which will seek to support FEO’s work in boosting the Hull and East Yorkshire economy through private sector wealth and employment creation, will see Strawberry join a number of other leading names from the area’s business community.

Jan Brumby, FEO’s chief executive, said: “It’s a very exciting time for the city – both in a business and community sense. It’s great to be joined by another key partner which shares our vision for developing the area’s economy and reputation, especially ahead of next year’s events.”