H/Advisors Maitland

Dr Martens

Capital Markets Day

Dr Martens floated in January 2021 with a £3.7bn valuation. It was a significant listing as a household name, and one which went public amid the turbulence of the COVID-19 pandemic. We were engaged in November 2021 on a broad brief encompassing corporate and financial communications support as well as ESG guidance. Our immediate task was educating opinion formers in the media – correcting misconceptions to ensure a fair portrayal of the business – as well as providing strategic guidance to help the leadership navigate sensitive events, delivering comprehensive financial calendar support, and securing positive profiles of the business in top-tier print, online and broadcast media. In addition, we have advised on issues including sustainability strategy, supply chain challenges, gender pay gap, legal action around IP infringement, store closures, and media questions around quality and fashion risk. Our work has helped Dr Martens navigate a challenging period as a newly-listed company, maintaining a narrative that emphasises its strong potential, ethos, and individuality.

Pets at Home

Public Affairs programme

Pets at Home is the UK's leading pet care business and wanted to develop an effective voice in specialist policy areas. H/Advsiors Maitland was asked to build and execute a public affairs programme as part of a wider integrated communications strategy to help Pets at Home respond to this challenge.

We helped ensure Pets at Home were recognised as an 'essential retailer' during the Covid pandemic, enabling the business to continue providing products to pets at a time of real concern for their owners, in addition to guiding the company through Brexit by advising on the negotiations over the Northern Ireland Protocol. We established a strong corporate profile and presence in Westminster and Whitehall, enabling the company to have an ongoing share of voice in policy debates. At H/Advisors Maitland we provide senior management with political insight to aid business planning for Pets at Home.

Amundi

Corporate Communications

Despite being Europe's largest asset manager with AUM of €1.9 trillion, Amundi was relatively unknown outside of France. It received a disproportionally low share of voice considering its size.

At H/Advisors Maitland, we developed a comprehensive media engagement programme for the business, its leader and various experts. This included building strong relationships with the institutional and retail investor press through 1-2-1 background briefings and roundtable events. We identified high impact broadcast appearances for Amundi's fund managers and drew the media's attention to Amundi's key expertise, such as its impressive low-carbon offering.

Amundi's coverage and industry share of voice has increased every year since we started working together in 2015. The business is now much better known and understood, and the strategic and targeted profile we have driven has helped to underpin it's growth plans.

Reckitt

Transformation and Change - Social impact

H/Advisors Maitland has worked with Reckitt since 2017, advising and supporting on various corporate communication briefs, including the strategic reorganisation which was announced in October 2017.

The social impact investment strategy had to reflect the new structure and focus of Reckitt’s business, along with its growing commitment to make a positive impact on the world. Even more than the previous approach, the new strategy encouraged and enabled employees to get involved and participate in delivering against Reckitt’s charitable goals.

CVC Capital Partners

Sustain - ESG Strategy

CVC is a leading global alternative investment manager focused on private equity, secondaries and credit with a global network of 25 local offices and €133bn of assets under management. We were asked to help develop an ESG strategy that will work for the group and its portfolio companies. CVC wanted to become credible with internal colleagues and externally, especially with investors and the media. They needed guidance on producing annual sustainability reports that show their progress against long-term goals and KPI's.

At H/Advisors Maitland, we helped develop a ESG strategy for the group and portfolio companies, updated external communications and managed media engagement. We helped to produce a full sustainability report which developed strategy across the whole company, colleagues globally were feeling more positively engaged and better connected.

Durex

Crisis and Reputation - Orchestrating a multi-jurisdictional product recall

This project was a high-profile product recall carried out across 36 jurisdictions. The local recall strategy was driven by teams in the markets in close coordination with the relevant regulatory authority and in alignment with local legal requirements and trade protcols.

We were able to swifly correct any inaccurate reporting through our local agency partners. Market-specfic developments and potential communication issues were flagged immediately through the agency network and resolved with the guidance and support of the global team. By keeping central control of the communications strategy and key messaging, we were able to minimise the impact on the brand and the company.