Hills Balfour acquired by US marketing giant
Travel and tourism PR and marketing group Hills Balfour has been acquired by US-based MMGY Global.
The deal includes Hills Balfour’s offices across London and Dubai.
It brings MMGY’s workforce to more than 400 people and its overseas offices to four, including Madrid, Taipei, and now additionally London and Dubai.
The agency will continue to trade as Hills Balfour but will now be known as Hills Balfour, an MMGY Global Company.
The MMGY brand and services will now also be introduced into both regions as MMGY London and MMGY Dubai.
The two firms will begin integrating operations this year.
"Expanding our presence beyond Madrid, Hills Balfour is the right step into Europe for us, and we see our foothold in the UK market as an excellent base to expand across the key European and Middle East tourism markets," stated Clayton Reid, CEO of MMGY Global.
"Their reputation in-market, along with an exceptional senior management team and a loyal and long-standing client base, made our merger of operations an easy one."
Amanda Hills, Hills Balfour’s founder and CEO, will remain an integral part of the business, continuing to oversee the London and Dubai firms’ overall operations.
She will assume the new role of president, HB and MMGY London and Dubai, partnering with the MMGY Global senior management team to grow the agency’s European footprint.
"Joining forces with MMGY Global is a truly exciting move for everybody involved. Taking the strength of their services and extending this through Hills Balfour into the UK and Dubai markets is a logical move and offers even greater benefit to both our clients and our teams at Hills Balfour, all of whom will be part of this journey," said Hills.
"We have worked with MMGY Global and their team through the Travel Consul network for a number of years, and this official partnering was the obvious next step.”
She added: “One of the main advantages is that we will continue to retain our independence, and thereby our autonomy, to deliver the creative thinking for which we are known."
Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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