FRANKFURT, GERMANY — WE Communications is expanding its presence in Germany, opening an office in Frankfurt to work alongside its Munich team.

The Frankfurt team of five new hires are specialists in health, consumer, technology and analytics, including data analyst Constantin Steiner, who joins from research and media analysis company Unicepta.

They will report to WE’s Germany vice president and general manager, Bianca Eichner (pictured), who said: “Frankfurt is one of the fastest growing cities in the Rhine-Main region and it is the next logical place for us to open an office. We can better serve clients, as well as attract a wider pool of talent in a growing innovation hub that has an increasing number of businesses with EMEA and global ambitions.”

In October, WE will add more senior talent to its team in Munich, including an un-named new head of health and a creative director/scientific lead, which will bring total headcount in Germany to 30.

WE global chief operating officer and president, international Kass Sells told the Holmes Report that the expansion in Germany was in response to client demand: “Germany has grown in double digits in the past year and has had a great start to this year, and we need to add more talent to serve those clients, particularly in healthcare, which is particularly strong and where we work with probably eight of the top 10 pharma companies in Germany.”

And he said it was likely that there would be further expansion in Europe: “We don’t anticipate any acquisitions in the second half of 2019 but we will look at continued growth for 2020 in Germany and also in London, which is our number one growth priority and where [UK MD] Ruth Allchurch has brought such energy.”

There will be further expansion of the agency’s PLUS partner network. Last year, WE added to the global network with its first region-specific network of specialist partners in Germany, and Sells said this had proved successful: “Being independent doesn’t mean that we have to go it alone, and in Germany we have been working with YouGov on research, Interel on public affairs, experiential agency Jazzunique and digital and design partners. It’s been a good source of new business and we’ll be expanding PLUS to the UK and South Africa.”