Lowe's Asia offices in the dark over cull plan

Lowe Worldwide's Asian country leaders remained unable to clarify the network's intentions in the region at press time, after the agency announced that it would cull 47 of its 86 global offices.

Lowe Thailand chairman Charuvarn Vanasin, who heads the Southeast Asia cluster out of the Bangkok 'lighthouse' office, said that she was "not in a position to make any statement" at this point. This was echoed by Lowe Malaysia MD Khairuddin Rahim, who said: "Up to this point, I am still awaiting an official announcement of which countries will be affected." Lowe global chairman Tony Wright revealed the network's new direction at an Interpublic Group investor conference in New York at the end of March. Despite repeated attempts, Wright was unable to comment on how Lowe would structure its operations in Asia-Pacific, which is currently organised as sub-regional hubs around the lighthouse offices of Thailand, India and China. Lowe Singapore CEO Bryan Easton, meanwhile, said that it was his understanding that "in markets where we have multinational business commitments or existing service commitments, we won't make any changes".