Havas PR wins Hobbycraft brief

Havas PR has been appointed by arts and crafts chain Hobbycraft to handle its PR following a four-way pitch.

The brief is to promote the brand to national, regional and local media.

The account will be run by a regional PR team in Manchester led by MD, Brian Beech and a national PR team led by London-based consumer MD, Jo Grierson.

The team will report to the company’s marketing team in Bournemouth, as well as to Hobbycraft’s CEO Catriona Marshall.

Catriona said: “We are redesigning our stores to be much more vibrant and friendly and to have much wider appeal.

“We want to engage with families and inspire them to try out new crafts, and Euro demonstrated that it clearly understands our audience and the sector we are in.”

Brian Beech said: “The appointment cements our position as the number one specialists in PR for multi site retail and leisure operations.  Hobbycraft is a fantastic name to add to our client list and it is going to be a lot of fun.  We have already had a finger puppet making competition in the office and taken cake baking to a new level.”

There are currently 62 Hobbycraft stores across the UK, with 14 more planned by the end of the year. An extensive refurbishment programme for 10 stores is also underway as part of the new Hobbycraft branding, which is being introduced across all of the stores as part of a three-year plan.

Havas PR’s other retail and leisure clients include Asda, Pets at Home Thomas Cook, Greggs and Debenhams.