Appointment of COO/CFO

Creston PLC 13 September 2004 Date: 13th September 2004 On behalf of: Creston Plc Embargoed until: 0700hrs Creston Plc Appointment of Chief Operating Officer/Chief Financial Officer The Board of Creston plc, the diversified marketing services group, is pleased to announce the Board appointment of Barrie Brien to a new role of Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer. His appointment is effective from 13 September 2004. Tim Alderson, the current Finance Director, is due to leave Creston by March 2005. He will, in the meantime, be assisting Barrie Brien in the handover of his duties. Mr Brien, 38, joins Creston from Lowe International Limited (formerly Lowe and Partners) and Draft London Limited, which had combined revenues of approximately $300m, and are part of Interpublic Limited/USA Interpublic group of Companies Inc, the world's third largest marketing communications group. Mr Brien joined Lowe & Partners in 1998 where he was Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operations Officer for Europe, the Middle East and Africa. He assumed the additional responsibility for Draft London Limited one year ago. During his time at Lowe International Limited and Draft London Limited, he has been actively involved in Merger & Acquisition transactions and has extensive experience in CRM, advertising, direct marketing and field marketing and managed up to 60 subsidiaries. Prior to Lowe & Partners, Mr Brien spent five years at Saatchi & Saatchi where he held senior positions including Senior Finance Director, New York. He began his career at GGT Group in 1988 as a Senior Management Accountant. Commenting on Barrie Brien's appointment, Don Elgie, Chief Executive of Creston said: "We are delighted to have attracted someone of Barrie's calibre and the further endorsement this gives to the strategy Creston embarked on three years ago in building a diversified international marketing services group. Creston today has a highly skilled and well-motivated team of 269 employees, with operations in qualitative and quantitative research, marketing communications, channel marketing and PR. Barrie brings with him a wealth of experience and expertise which will be invaluable in taking Creston to the next stage of its development, in particular his highly relevant marketing services experience, people skills and proven ability to deal very successfully with a broad range of operating companies." Barrie Brien added: "Creston is a dynamic company which has already made a major impact in the sector. I am extremely excited about the opportunities facing the Group and about my role in helping Creston to continue to build the business by a combination of organic growth and selective acquisitions." Details of Mr. Brien's current and past directorships in the previous five years are as follows: Current directorships Past directorships Draft London Limited Lowe & Partners Limited The Institute of Practitioners in Advertising Further to the disclosure requirements of the UK Listing Authority, as specified in the Listing Rules, there are no further matters which require disclosure under Rule 16.4(a) and (b). Enquiries to: Emma Kane/James White: Tel: 020 7955 1410 Redleaf Communications Ltd Mob: 07876 338339 Don Elgie, CEO, Creston Plc Tel: 020 7930 9757 • Publication quality photographs are available through Redleaf Communications. Notes to Editors: Creston's strategy is to build a diversified international marketing services group through a combination of organic growth and selective acquisitions. The Board believes that it can identify synergistic benefits between currently independent marketing services companies offering premium services such as market research, direct marketing, customer relationship marketing and other areas of marketing communications. The Board's objective is that each element of the Group will reflect the continued trend away from mass marketing towards one-to-one marketing between clients and customers. Following its repositioning in January 2001 as a marketing services group, Creston has made five significant acquisitions, which have each demonstrated growth despite difficult market conditions: • the acquisition in January 2001 of Marketing Sciences Limited, an international quantitative and qualitative market research company, based in Winchester; • the acquisition in November 2001 of The Real Adventure Marketing Communications Limited, a national marketing communications company, based in Bath; • the acquisition in November 2002 of EMO Group Limited, a national channel marketing communications company, based in Swindon and Bristol; • the acquisition in October 2003 of Nelson Bostock Communications Limited, a London based public relations agency founded in 1987, which ranks as the 15th largest UK agency and 10th largest agency in the technology sector in recent industry league tables; and • the acquisition on 6th September 2004 of CML Research, one of Britain's leading qualitative market research companies, based in London. This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
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