BEP bought by Desgrippes Gobé

Brussels branding consultancy BEP Design Group has severed its tie-up with Paris-based Carré Noir following the ousting of that group’s president, and has been acquired by Desgrippes Gobé & Associates in France.

BEP’s 23-strong team is managed by its founders Brigitte and Jean Jacques Evrard and had worked under the Carré Noir label since 1994. Carré Noir former president Gérard Carron was ousted earlier this year by the group’s majority shareholders (DW 22 May).

“With the departure of Carron, Brigitte and Jean Jacques Evrard have decided to end this licensing contract and to look for a genuine partner sharing a similar design philosophy,” according to a Desgrippes Gobé spokeswoman. BEP is now known as Desgrippes Gobé & Associates Brussels.

Desgrippes Gobé now owns 60 per cent of the Brussels group, but declines to reveal how much money changed hands in the deal. There are no changes to BEP’s structure says Brigitte Evrard.

Paris-based Desgrippes Gobé has offices in Lyon, New York, Tokyo, Seoul and Budapest, and considers itself the only French agency with a complete international network.

With the addition of the Brussels office the group employs more than 100 people in Europe and another 80 worldwide. It specialises in packaging, branding, identity and retail interiors.

“In the future we will build an interiors team in Brussels,” says the spokeswoman.