PRO agencies join forces

Johannesburg - Two of South Africa’s most-respected public relations agencies, Meropa Communications and Lange 360 Strategic Communications, have joined forces to form South Africa’s largest, independent, national public relations consultancy.

The deal, effective from 1 June, will see the integration of the companies’ offices in Cape Town and Johannesburg under the Meropa brand.

Depth of skills

The merging of the two companies almost doubles the size of Meropa’s Cape Town office and the company now has more than 70 employees in Cape Town, Johannesburg, Port Elizabeth and Durban.

Both Meropa and Lange have operated successfully for the past 26 years, and together have a depth of skills and breadth of services, including communications strategy, stakeholder  relations, publicity, crisis communications, and investor relations and consultancy.

Meropa’s operations include a specialist digital division, in-house video production, a training and a publishing division, as well as an events and consumer activations hub.

“The deal with Lange 360 makes sense for them, for us and most of all for our clients,” says Meropa chief executive Peter Mann.

“We greatly admire what Ruth Golembo and her team have achieved. It’s an opportunity to leverage the strengths and synergies of both companies. They have tremendous clients and great people. We welcome them into Meropa.”

Combined business

Ruth Golembo says: “Joining Meropa allows us to bring an even stronger national base to our clients. We will benefit from Meropa’s national footprint and their AfricaOne network which reaches into 18 mainly sub-Saharan African countries.

Golembo, who joins the Meropa board, will take on a newly created strategic role in the combined business. In Cape Town the integrated company will be run by Meropa’s Cape Town-based director Stephen Forbes. In Johannesburg, the business will be integrated under Meropa managing director Patrick Gearing.