MULLENLOWE GROUP ANNOUNCES SALE OF MAJORITY STAKE IN JAPAN BUSINESS TO LOCAL MANAGEMENT HOLDING COMPANY Posted on

New company will be called Fabric

TOKYO, JAPAN, XX MAY 2021: Interpublic Group (IPG) subsidiary MullenLowe Group has
agreed to sell the majority of its shareholding in MullenLowe Japan to local management
holding company bionomica KK, strengthening local ownership to best take advantage of new
opportunities in the post-covid consumer culture. The new company will be called Fabric and
will retain a close affiliation with the MullenLowe Group network, and IPG more broadly.
IPG and MullenLowe Group remain committed to Japan, retaining a 15% stake in the
business. This stake and relationship in one of the world’s largest consumer economies enables
both parties to retain more active collaboration and access to resources than would be the case
in a full divestment.
Fabric will use strategic thinking and storytelling to help businesses reframe problems and
create shared value with customers and communities, weaving partner brands into a new social
fabric that is emerging – where the brands that succeed are the ones that enable culture,
nurture relationships, and act on sustainability. It offers strong local knowledge coupled with
international standards, tools & methodologies. The new management holding company is
controlled and led by former MullenLowe Japan CEO, James Hollow, who has been with the
network since 2014.
Commenting on the announcement, Hollow said, “This is a time of change at many levels. Covid
has accelerated trends that we were seeing in what society expects from businesses and
brands, pushed by government regulation, consumer demand for more sustainable options, and
the relationship that customers want to have with companies both as consumers and
employees. This move allows us to focus on helping clients weave their brands into this new
social fabric, by combining our heritage strengths in marketing communications with newly
acquired strategic expertise and market insight.”
The move to transition MullenLowe Japan to local majority control is consistent with MullenLowe
Group’s strategy to create a more agile network in Asia built around market, team and individual
skill sets and experience with fewer controlled hubs.

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Notes to editors:
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Suzy Goulding MullenLowe salt Tel: +65 9773 5698 suzy.goulding@mullenlowesalt.com About MullenLowe Group MullenLowe Group is a creatively driven integrated marketing communications network with a strong entrepreneurial heritage and challenger mentality. We are a global creative boutique of distinctive diverse agencies, rich in local culture with both intimacy and scale, present in 65 markets. With a hyperbundled operating model, global specialisms include expertise in brand strategy, and through the line advertising with MullenLowe; customer experience with MullenLowe Profero; media and communications planning and buying with Mediahub; brand and corporate PR, social influence, purpose and sustainability consulting with MullenLowe Comms. We are focused on delivering an Unfair Share of Attention for clients’ brands and are consistently ranked among the most awarded creative and effective agency networks in the world. For nine years, MullenLowe Group has topped the Effie Index as the most effective global network in terms of points per dollar revenue, in 2018 was named to the Ad Age Agency A-List and in 2019 was ranked in the top ten ‘Top Agency Networks for Creativity’ in the WARC Creative 100. MullenLowe Group is part of the Interpublic Group of Companies (NYSE: IPG). For more information, visit us at mullenlowegroup.com or follow MullenLowe Group @MullenLoweGroup on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn.