Poster buyers stranded as contractors drag feet

Poster buyers are concerned that no long-term site lists or ratecards are available from the major contractors, More O’Ferrall, Maiden Outdoor and Mills & Allen, for next year.

All three are redesigning packages of sites after the Office of Fair Trading gave the go-ahead for Maiden to acquire British Transport Advertising.

Maiden and MO’F are in talks with regional poster contractors to start selling the regionals’ billboards in their own packages.

M&A is integrating National Solus Sites into its packages after signing a sales deal with the company last month.

Alan Simmons, managing director of poster buyer Concord, says: “We need to know, by the end of the month, the shape of the packages for next year or we will have a problem.

“They seem to be forgetting clients while seeking to grow themselves,” says another specialist.

“There is a blank sheet about much of the structure of the industry following the OFT’s decision,” says MO’F managing director Vincent Slevin.

Media analysis, page 14