Fleishman-Hillard

Fleishman-Hillard ((http://www.fleishmaneurope.com/Cities/Edinburgh.html)) is one of the biggest PR companies in the world with over 80 offices worldwide. Its parent company is the Omnicom group Inc ((http://www.omnicomgroup.com/)), which is a huge conglomerate that describes itself as a "global leader in Marketing and Global Communications".

The Fleishman-Hillard office in Edinburgh was originally set up as GPC in 1996 ahead of the establishment of a Scottish Parliament in 1999.

They boast that "Within Scotland, we are unrivalled in the depth and breadth of our knowledge on the detail of devolution and how the Scottish Parliament really operates in practice".

They go on to say:

"We pride ourselves on our understanding of how the Scottish political, policy, and media agendas impacts the rest of the United Kingdom and companies and organisations and their businesses. We can make a difference to our clients' business objectives by combining the right resources, people, and skills with a clear perspective and an innovative approach to any communications challenge".

They conclude by stating:

"Our team is drawn from a range of career backgrounds, bringing together political experience, policy development insight, strategic communications, event management, and research skills. The common factors among the team are our commitment to our clients and assurance that we will keep their needs at the top of our agenda".

And finally:

"To make ourselves as valuable to our clients as they are to us."®

One way that they may make themselves valuable to their clients, in Scotland, and keep their needs at the top of their agenda, is by attending Scottish parliament cross-party group meetings that may affect their clients. For example, the cross-party food group was attended by two employees, Jenni Wilkie and Ben Bosely Walker, in February of 2005. This may have something to do with Tesco being a client of theirs. Curiously, Tesco being a client has not been declared to the Association of Professional Political Consultants (APPC) by Fleishman-Hillard.