BrazilKantar Consulting launches retail and shopper practice in Singapore
Kantar Consulting has launched its retail, sales and shopper offering in Singapore with a trio of executive appointments.
Following last year’s launch of an advanced data and analytics research centre in Singapore under Kantar’s freshly established analytics wing, the WPP-owned firm’s growth consulting arm Kantar Consulting has now launched its Retail, Sales & Shopper practice in the city-state – bringing in a number of key hires, including David Heijkoop as director and Lies Ellison-Davis as executive advisor.
Established last year through the merger of four Kantar brands – Kantar Added Value, Kantar Futures, Kantar Vermeer and Kantar Retail (the latter which functioned as Kantar’s former retail, sales, ecommerce and shopper division) – Kantar Consulting is a specialist sales and marketing advisory serving the retail, financial services, automotive, tech and fast moving consumer goods sectors among others.
"We are creating Kantar Consulting to fulfil our ambition of bringing a deeper, more rounded consulting offer to our clients,” Kantar CEO Eric Salama said at the time of the new entity’s formation. “Alone and in combination with other capabilities, Kantar Consulting will be a core part of Kantar and WPP’s success in the future.”
With over 1,000 analysts spread across offices in Europe, the Americas, Africa and the Asia Pacific, Kantar Consulting has now announced the launch of its Retail, Sales & Shopper practice in Singapore, which will serve as the offering’s regional Southeast Asia hub and is said to have been established in response to growing demand for regionally-specific support.
To support the launch of the new retail practice, Kantar Consulting has brought in a trio of executives, including former Friesland Campina pair David Heijkoop and Lies Ellison-Davis as respectively director and executive advisor. Heijkoop and Ellison-Davis have both been at the Dutch dairy giant in Asia for more than eight years, most recently serving as Business Development Director (Heijkoop) and Global Chief Commercial Officer (Ellison-Davis).
They will further by joined by Marc Delbos joined as Associate Director, who crosses after seven and a half years with Red Bull in Hong Kong. “We are very excited to have Lies, David and Marc join the team,” said Kantar Consulting Southeast Asia Managing Partner Stephane Alpern, noting the current team of 25 brand and marketing consultants. “Their breadth of client-side experience will help us identify growth opportunities with an omnichannel lens.”
The continued market push from Kantar – including the recent launch of a second office in Australia along with a media & analytics practice in Canada – comes at a time when its owner, advertising giant WPP, is exploring options for a partial sell-off due to sustained market pressure – in part due to industry encroachment from the likes of Accenture and Deloitte. A potential Kantar sale could raise an estimated $4.5 billion for WPP.
