Appointment of COO/CFO

RNS Number:8647C
Creston PLC
13 September 2004

Date:                         13th September 2004

On behalf of:                 Creston Plc

Embargoed until:              0700hrs



Creston Plc

Appointment of Chief Operating Officer/Chief Financial Officer

The Board of Creston plc, the diversified marketing services group, is pleased
to announce the Board appointment of Barrie Brien to a new role of Chief
Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer.  His appointment is effective
from 13 September 2004. Tim Alderson, the current Finance Director, is due to
leave Creston by March 2005.  He will, in the meantime, be assisting Barrie
Brien in the handover of his duties.

Mr Brien, 38, joins Creston from Lowe International Limited (formerly Lowe and
Partners) and Draft London Limited, which had combined revenues of approximately
$300m, and are part of Interpublic Limited/USA Interpublic group of Companies
Inc, the world's third largest marketing communications group.  Mr Brien joined
Lowe & Partners in 1998 where he was Chief Financial Officer and Chief
Operations Officer for Europe, the Middle East and Africa.  He assumed the
additional responsibility for Draft London Limited one year ago.  During his
time at Lowe International Limited and Draft London Limited, he has been
actively involved in Merger & Acquisition transactions and has extensive
experience in CRM, advertising, direct marketing and field marketing and managed
up to 60 subsidiaries.  Prior to Lowe & Partners, Mr Brien spent five years at
Saatchi & Saatchi where he held senior positions including Senior Finance
Director, New York.  He began his career at GGT Group in 1988 as a Senior
Management Accountant.

Commenting on Barrie Brien's appointment, Don Elgie, Chief Executive of Creston
said:

"We are delighted to have attracted someone of Barrie's calibre and the further
endorsement this gives to the strategy Creston embarked on three years ago in
building a diversified international marketing services group.  Creston today
has a highly skilled and well-motivated team of 269 employees, with operations
in qualitative and quantitative research, marketing communications, channel
marketing and PR.  Barrie brings with him a wealth of experience and expertise
which will be invaluable in taking Creston to the next stage of its development,
in particular his highly relevant marketing services experience, people skills
and proven ability to deal very successfully with a broad range of operating
companies."

Barrie Brien added:

"Creston is a dynamic company which has already made a major impact in the
sector.  I am extremely excited about the opportunities facing the Group and
about my role in helping Creston to continue to build the business by a
combination of organic growth and selective acquisitions."

Details of Mr. Brien's current and past directorships in the previous five years
are as follows:

Current directorships                                 Past directorships

Draft London Limited                                  Lowe & Partners Limited
The Institute of Practitioners in Advertising


Further to the disclosure requirements of the UK Listing Authority, as specified
in the Listing Rules, there are no further matters which require disclosure
under Rule 16.4(a) and (b).


Enquiries to:


Emma Kane/James White:                    Tel:       020 7955 1410
Redleaf Communications Ltd                Mob:       07876 338339


Don Elgie, CEO, Creston Plc               Tel:       020 7930 9757


*  Publication quality photographs are available through Redleaf
   Communications.


Notes to Editors:

Creston's strategy is to build a diversified international marketing services
group through a combination of organic growth and selective acquisitions. The
Board believes that it can identify synergistic benefits between currently
independent marketing services companies offering premium services such as
market research, direct marketing, customer relationship marketing and other
areas of marketing communications. The Board's objective is that each element of
the Group will reflect the continued trend away from mass marketing towards
one-to-one marketing between clients and customers.

Following its repositioning in January 2001 as a marketing services group,
Creston has made five significant acquisitions, which have each demonstrated
growth despite difficult market conditions:


*    the acquisition in January 2001 of Marketing Sciences Limited, an 
     international quantitative and qualitative market research company,
     based in Winchester;

*    the acquisition in November 2001 of The Real Adventure Marketing 
     Communications Limited, a national marketing communications company,
     based in Bath;


*    the acquisition in November 2002 of EMO Group Limited, a national channel 
     marketing communications company, based in Swindon and Bristol;
                                                   
*    the acquisition in October 2003 of Nelson Bostock Communications Limited, 
     a London based public relations agency founded in 1987, which ranks as the 
     15th largest UK agency and 10th largest agency in the technology sector in 
     recent industry league tables; and

*    the acquisition on 6th September 2004 of CML Research, one of Britain's 
     leading qualitative market research companies, based in London.


                      This information is provided by RNS
            The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
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