ZURICH — Management consulting and communications group Farner International has made its first moves into Germany with a dual agency acquisition, as it continues to expand its European network.

The agency has bought 100% of both strategic communications consultancy Kirchhoff Consult, which has around 60 employees in Hamburg, and 90-strong creative and consulting firm Komm.passion, based in Hamburg, Düsseldorf and Berlin, for an undisclosed sum, bringing the total headcount at Farner to around 600 people.

Komm.passion operates as a management consultancy and creative agency, working with clients on complex projects in areas including business transformation, health, corporate, brand and digital, while Kirchhoff Consult is focused on annual and sustainability reports, support for IPOs and investor relations, ESG and sustainability consulting. Both firms will become part of “Team Farner” but will keep their names.

As a result of the deal, Komm.passion partners Alex Güttler, Frederik Bollhorst and Jelena Mirkovic as well as Kirchhoff Consult co-CEOs Jens Hecht and Vincent Furnari and agency founder Klaus Rainer Kirchhoff will join the Farner International partnership, and Kirchhoff also becomes chairman of the supervisory board of Kirchhoff Consult.

The move follows Farner’s acquisition of Austrian communications agency Kobza Media Group and Netherlands-based branding agency VIM Group in November last year. After a number of other recent Swiss acquisitions, the group also now includes nextgen specialist Jim & Jim, digital agency Yoveo and digital marketing agency BlueGlass.

Farner International executive chairman Roman Geiser (pictured) said the acquisitions were “another important milestone” in the implementation of Farner’s strategy to build a European market leader for strategic and creative communications consultancy.

“We have a clear ambition to build national champions,” he said. “I am very pleased that we are joining forces with Komm.passion and Kirchhoff Consult, two consultancies that are leaders in their fields, to enter the German market. They have the same mindset and the same view of current client needs, which drives our joint journey: complete, fully integrated communication solutions with a clear focus on creativity, technology and digital. All of this with a large portion of entrepreneurial DNA. In this way, we offer our clients in European core markets a completely new quality of consulting services.”

Geiser said this was only the first step for Farner in the German market and that “further acquisitions to build a top three agency in Germany will follow.” And he added the agency would continue its expansion plans in Switzerland and beyond: “We have obviously started a movement and are having good discussions in several markets. We will soon be allowed to communicate further steps, also in Switzerland.

“We have greatly accelerated our historic growth trajectory in recent months and have practically tripled our turnover since our announcement in February 2022. We will continue at this pace in the current financial year.”

The ongoing expansion programme is supported by private investment firm Waterland, which recently bought a majority stake in data and insight, broadcast and virtual events and live streaming group Markettiers4DC.