The former advertising flagship Publicitas is about to be scrapped

1868: Die 1855 in Hamburg-Altona gegründete «Insertionsagentur Haasenstein & » gründet eine Filiale in Basel und dehnt das Inserategeschäft nach und nach auf die ganze Schweiz aus.

1890: Charles W. Georg, son of a German immigrant, takes over the company, converts it into a joint stock company and moves the headquarters to Geneva. He expands the business to Italy, France and Spain and acquires the parent company in Hamburg.

1917: The company adopts the less German-sounding name Publicitas, its telegram address at the time. By the outbreak of World War I, the agency has 54 branches and 380 agencies in nine European countries.

1930: The registered office of the company is transferred to Lausanne.

1947: After concentrating on its business in Switzerland during the two world wars, Publicitas reopened a branch in Paris in 1947.

1965: Publicitas is once again starting to build up an international network comprising agencies in 17 countries under the umbrella of Groupe Publicitas International.

1988: A hostile takeover bid by real estate dealer Jürg Stäubli fails.

1989: The Advertising Group is brought together under Publicitas Holding Ltd. At this time, it counts 30 companies with 3450 employees and holds minority interests in several newspapers. Sales exceed the two billion mark for the first time.

1992: Under the impression of a massive decline in advertising, Publicitas swallows the numbers two and three in the industry, Orell Füssli Werbe AG and Assa. This gives it around 65 percent of the total advertising market in Switzerland.

1998: Publicitas Holding renames itself PubliGroupe and restructures its advertising companies a year later.

2001: Massiv schwindende Werbevolumen bei den Printmedien und Fehlinvestitionen im Online-Bereich lassen die Publigroupe tief in die roten Zahlen rutschen. In den folgenden Jahren werden rund 1000 Stellen abgebaut. Durch Immobilienverkäufe und rentable Beteiligungen wie local.ch kann sich die Gruppe über Wasser halten.

2002: The Competition Commission launches an investigation into possible abuse of a dominant market position by Publicitas. In 2007, it fines the Group CHF 2.5 million.

July 2014: After losing leases with several newspaper publishers, Publicitas is sold to the German investment company Aurelius. At this point, it still has 860 employees.

September 2014: After a bidding war with Tamedia, Swisscom acquires Publigroupe.

December 2016: Aurelius sells Publicitas to CEO Jörg Nürnberg, CFO Carsten Brinkmeier and a silent partner.

April 2018: Tamedia, Ringier und Admeira sowie die NZZ-Mediengruppe beenden ihre Zusammenarbeit mit Publicitas. Begründet wird der Schritt mit der unbefriedigenden Zahlungsmoral der Werbevermittlerin.

May 3, 2018: Publicitas announces that the District Court of Bülach has confirmed a provisional debt-restructuring moratorium.

Chronik: SDA