CRC, which Bezier bought from Media Square for £7.2m in March, was deemed too similar to existing point-of-sale design specialist Bluetouch to remain independent.

Joy Lees, marketing manager at Bezier, said: "The decision was a mutual agreement between Bezier, Coutts and Bluetouch. It just made more sense to focus their combined efforts.

"We are currently in the process of drawing up a business plan to decide how to take Coutts Shopper Marketing forward. It is likely that the company will expand in scope."

Bezier, which turned over nearly £120m last year, stressed that the combined workforce of 80 staff would be retained, with no redundancies.

Mark Shaw, chief executive of Bezier, said: "It is about pulling together all our separate agencies under a management team with one clear focus – retail marketing.

"We have no plans to close any of our four existing studios but are looking to expand, either by acquisitions or organic growth."

CRC managing director John Savage revealed the company would look to develop its retail insights offering after the merger.

He said: "This is an area we believe holds many significant opportunities. We are going to look at how different customer segments behave when shopping in different types of store."

CRC provides consultancy services to clients including Disney, Universal and Fox.