Wieden & Kennedy cuts workforce by 11% globally

Wieden & Kennedy is cutting its workforce by 11% – approximately 165 employees – globally as a result of the financial implications the agency has faced amidst the coronavirus crisis.

The agency, which has more than 1,500 staff around the world, said that the current situation has reached an "impasse".

It is unclear how much of the London office is affected by the move.

Last week Campaign reported on the departure of executive creative director Iain Tait and chief strategy officer Ben Armistead in early 2021, however the agency said that the exits were not related to the redundancies.

A spokesman for W&K said: "We negotiated this as long as we could, but W+K and Covid-19 have reached an impasse. How long this will last seems to be anybody’s guess, so we have had to make some hard choices.

"We are saying goodbye to people that we love; 11% of our network. Some raised their hands to leave, helping to save the jobs of others.

"Some received bad news graciously. Voluntary or not, everyone was given the softest landing possible. All of them are a loss to us. Any agency that gets them is lucky."

W&K has eight offices around the world: Portland, Amsterdam, New York, Tokyo, London, Shanghai, Delhi and São Paulo.

The agency works with clients including Nike, Sainsbury's and Coca-Cola.