WPP takes in BDG McColl division

BDG McColl’s office interiors division, Workplace, is to become an independent consultancy under the WPP Group umbrella, it has emerged this week.

The reason for the move is to give the consultancy’s office interiors division ‘more clarity’ and strengthen the BDG McColl brand.

The standalone division, provisionally called BDG McColl Workplace, will be led by existing joint managing directors Gill Parker and Phil Hutchinson. BDG McColl’s Scotland office will also form a standalone group under WPP.

The move follows news revealed exclusively by Design Week (DW 18 October) that BDG McColl’s retail and leisure division is to become a standalone unit under Enterprise IG.

Enterprise IG chief executive Dave Allen says retail and leisure sits more successfully under the Enterprise IG umbrella. ‘There is considerable overlap,’ he says.

The department will probably lose its BDG McColl moniker, Allen adds. ‘There will be no change to what the retail and leisure and workplace divisions do, and they will continue [to function] as they are,’ he says.

There will be no conflict between WPP’s brand expression offer, Enterprise XP, as it concentrates on temporary 3D design work, Allen says. By comparison, retail and leisure is predominantly permanent interior design.

The Workplace name is well-known in the office interiors environment, so it makes sense for the division to operate independently, Allen says. The move also gives the BDG McColl brand a greater focus, he adds.