TBWA-Tequila\Malaysia trims fat

• 25 staff to leave TBWA-Tequila\Malaysia in voluntary scheme
• 76% applied for Voluntary Separation Scheme
• Agency trims down after tough 2009 to prepare for 2010
  

Malaysia - TBWA-Tequila\Malaysia is letting 25 staff go as part of a Voluntary Separation Scheme it launched last month as the agency bids to trim down to prepare for 2010.

A total of 76% of TBWA-Tequila's staff applied for the scheme but only one third or 25 applications were accepted. The agency said in the scheme each staff can expect his/her contracted termination period to be paid in full, and all unused leave paid in full as well two months' salary for every year served.

Under this scheme, staff who have been at TBWA-Tequila\Malaysia since its inception eight years ago stand to receive 16 months' pay. 

In a written statement , TBWA-Tequila president Austen Zecha said the agency's 2009 business to-date has been about the same as 2008's, thanks mostly to some new business in the first half, otherwise it could have been not even as good as last year because of clients' under-spending due to the recession, making organic growth almost impossible.

In March, TBWA-ISC\Malaysia merged with Tequila-Myalo\Malaysia to become the fully integrated creative agency called TBWA-Tequila\ Malaysia.

TBWA\Malaysia Group's other major agency, Creative Juice\Sil, has grown more than two-fold since August, 2007. Zecha said by comparison, therefore, TBWA-Tequila had to trim itself down to prepare for 2010.

In September, TBWA\Tequila Malaysia was handed the Haagen-Dazs Asia-Pacific regional account by General Mills.

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