Corporate Edge swallows sisters

The CLK and MPL Interiors and Architectural Design brands are to disappear next month when they and their sister companies are rebranded Corporate Edge.

CLK, MPL, Look Interactive, The Brand Naming Company, Ignite, CLK Brand Futures and Talkvisual will be rebranded as Corporate Edge on 15 March, to form a group with a claimed turnover of £14m and a total staff of 140.

Director Peter Shaw says that no redundancies or client conflicts are anticipated.

CLK and MPL merged in April 1997, following a management buyout from the Princedale Group, to form holding company CLK.MPL. But the brands continued to trade separately. Corporate Edge was set up in July 1997.

The group has subsequently acquired digital media consultancy ADC, a name no longer used, Look Interactive and last year Grey Brand Futures, which has been renamed CLK Brand Futures.

The rebranded group will operate five divisions: corporate branding; naming, futures and innovation; literature and new media; interiors and architecture; and market research. Each division will be led by a divisional managing director.

Shaw comments: “There was a very strong case for bringing together all the skills we have been building up under one brand. Clients are placing more and more focus on the way brands develop and we have the ability to think holistically about brand development.”

He conceded that the Corporate Edge brand was “not well known enough”, and that the group rebrand was designed to raise its profile and reflect the range of skills within the group.