Seymour Powell expands in fmcg

Seymour Powell is forging ahead with expansion plans within the fmcg sector, and has made a raft of senior appointments.

Dick Powell, co-founder of Seymour Powell says, ‘It’s all to do with growing the business. We’ve been involved in fmcg for five or six years now, working on brands like Dove and Lynx, but have held off moving into graphics branding for a while because [packaging design consultancy] Williams Murray Hamm are in the same group.’

‘We’re looking at creating a much bigger business because we have a very different offer that clients are interested in and we need to create a business to cope with that,’ he adds.

‘Particularly within fmcg, clients are used to receiving creative work from a suite of groups – from innovation, to product strategy, brand identity and graphics, but where they fall over at the end of the process is being able to realise their dream and the problems with the supply chain. As product designers, we can bring something new to this. We can do the innovation, strategy and branding, and can deliver through to the supply chain,’ says Powell.

The Loewy-owned London consultancy has appointed two new directors and created four new, internal-appointed ‘associateships’ – roles with overall creative responsibility for projects and the running of client accounts.

Ed Hebblethwaite, formerly planning director at Interbrand, Fitch and Identica, becomes director of Seymour Powell Foresight, the consultancy’s planning, research and trend forecasting unit.

Former Designbridge creative director Neil Hirst joins Seymour Powell design directors Richard Seymour, Dick Powell, David Fisher, Nick Talbot and Adrian Caroen, alongside Hebblethwaite and finance director Russell Lloyd, in the eight-strong senior management team as director of the consultancy’s growing packaging team.

Among the associate appointments is Conran & Partners designer Michael Webster, who will be working closely with Hirst on the packaging team.

Head of strategy Simon Rucker and associate director research Paula Zuccotti take up their posts on the Seymour Powell Foresight team.

Matthew Tidnam, who has been with Seymour Powell for 11 years, is the new associate director of product design.