Metro Production Group Ltd (previously Metro Broadcast Limited) is a UK-based
corporate event supplier and creative event production company. Its head office is in London, with a satellite operation in Scotland and offices in Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Aberdeen. The company is a wholly owned subsidiary of
WPP plc.
Metro Production Group is also the resident technical production supplier at several London event venues such as
30 Euston Square, a conference venue based at
The Royal College of General Practitioners, and one of Europe’s largest conference hotels,
Hilton London Metropole
The Hilton London Metropole is a 1,059-room 4-star hotel and conference centre located on Edgware Road in central London. It is bounded by the Marylebone Flyover to the north, Praed Street to the south, and the Paddington Basin development to the ...
. Additionally, the company is a preferred event supplier at some of London’s most precious and historic buildings including
Somerset House
Somerset House is a large Neoclassical complex situated on the south side of the Strand in central London, overlooking the River Thames, just east of Waterloo Bridge. The Georgian era quadrangle was built on the site of a Tudor palace ("O ...
,
the Natural History Museum,
Spencer House Spencer House may refer to:
* Spencer House, Westminster, Greater London, England
United States
* Spencer House (Hartford, Connecticut), listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) in Hartford County
* Spencer House in Columbus, ...
,
Barber-Surgeons’ Hall and
Middle Temple Hall
The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, commonly known simply as Middle Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court exclusively entitled to call their members to the English Bar as barristers, the others being the Inner Temple, Gray's Inn a ...
.
History
In 1980, in a flat in
Welling, South East London, Managing Director David Pacy
and Technical Director Brian Rottger founded Metrovideo. Its principal activity was tape sales to advertising agencies such as
JWT (formerly J. Walter Thompson Co.),
Saatchi & Saatchi and
Y&R (formerly Young & Rubicam).
The company soon relocated to Landsdown Road in Stockwell and then, in April 1984, to the Old Bacon Factory in
Great Suffolk Street
Great Suffolk Street is a street in the Southwark area of London. It runs from the north at Southwark Street to Borough High Street, crossing Union Street, London, Union Street and Southwark Bridge Road on the way. At its southern end it become ...
, London SE1.
In early 1986, the business was sold to WPP plc, a British, multinational advertising and public relations company founded by
Martin Sorrell
Sir Martin Stuart Sorrell (born 14 February 1945) is a British businessman and the founder of WPP plc, the world's largest advertising and PR group, both by revenue and the number of staff. Upon being ousted in April 2018, Sorrell was the longe ...
. Metrovideo was the third company to be acquired by the Group.
Metrovideo later acquired a number of regional video businesses for itself, including Horizon Video and Still Frame Video in the South of England and Teletape Anglia in
Cambridge
Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...
. This expanded the sales, installation, service, AV hire and technical event production, areas of the company. A broadcast division of the company was located in offices in London’s
Soho
Soho is an area of the City of Westminster, part of the West End of London. Originally a fashionable district for the aristocracy, it has been one of the main entertainment districts in the capital since the 19th century.
The area was develop ...
. All of these businesses traded under the Metro Group banner.
In 1990, Metro launched a full-service production business called G Force, which later changed its name to Clever Media. Clever Media was then merged into another WPP operating company.
In 1997, the company extended its operation into
Scotland
Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...
by establishing an office and equipment warehouse in
Edinburgh
Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...
.
In 2007, the Company was renamed as Metro Broadcast Ltd. In 2012 Metro Broadcast relocated its head office and main business premises to its current location in Oval, South London. In 2014, it acquired additional workshop space to house its set and staging department. Today, the London business is led by Managing Director Mary Metcalfe, and the Scottish business is led by Managing Director Oscar Askin.
In 2020, the Company re-branded to Metro Production Group.
References
External links
{{Portal, Companies
Metro Production Group official websiteWPP official website
Event management
Internet broadcasting