The jobs went from across administration, middle management and facilities leaving a total headcount of 105. "The way of the world means we had to reduce headcount," said managing director David Russell.

"It's part of our overall change. It's taking time to manage the repositioning, we had to sort out our people before rebranding."

He added: "It's the bad part, but unfortunately it has to be done." The rebranding of ES and the wider BBDO group will be unveiled in the third week of October (PrintWeek, 22 July).

Despite the job losses, which Russell attributed to greater efficiencies achieved through the move to a digital workflow, ES is being positioned to take on more work from other members of the BBDO group.

"Our target is to bring repro currently handled by third parties in-house, as part of a much more integrated strategy," said Russell.

Story by Barney Cox