Diadeis has bought out P’Référence, making it a unique player on the European agency scene.

France’s leading packaging production agency and one of the main players in Europe by virtue of its subsidiaries in Germany, the UK and Spain, Diadeis has developed an innovative product range by drawing on its comprehensive bank of expertise, enabling it to meet the latest challenges posed by communication campaigns. The company offers a full range of printing design, implementation, photo engraving and management solutions, alongside customer support for project management and marketing process optimisation, particularly through the implementation of workflow and online approval tools. By buying out P’Référence, Diadeis is expanding its range of multidisciplinary creation services to advertisers to include graphic design and volume.

“Whilst this rather unusual buyout of one of the most well-known French design agencies by a production agency is likely to surprise many people, we felt that the combination of Diadeis’ pre-press expertise and P’Référence’s creativity was a no-brainer,” explains Guillaume Postel, executive director of Diadeis. The agency is now in a position to offer its major account clients one-stop solutions for all their communication creation needs, from the brainstorming and strategic design stage right through to print management. “For me, the link between production and creation is the future of packaging design," adds Fabrice Peltier, the founder of P'Référence. “It’s time we stopped conceptualising design in an ivory tower, focusing solely on abstract communication strategies and ignoring the industrial realities. There must be dialogue between production and creativity, so that packaging doesn't lose sight of its objective: to promote the product in every way possible.”

As one of the largest independent packaging design and service marketing agencies in France, P’Référence boasts over 10,000 packaging creations to its name. The agency focuses on two main areas of activity: graphic design, and volume and innovation design. It has also carried out work for Orangina-Schweppes, L'Oréal, Bic and Bouygues. Recognised for its creativity and its ability to innovate, P’Référence beat all other French agencies to receive the most accolades at the Pentawards, the world packaging design competition. A number of its creations have become part of our daily lives and even our history, as some have already been catalogued at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris.

P’Référence was founded in 1985 by Fabrice Peltier. Then aged 24, this trained designer was to make the company one of the top five French agencies in the 1990s. Known as one of the leading experts in packaging design, Fabrice Peltier is also the author of numerous books on the subject and director of the IdPack collection for Pyramyd Editions. He has spent many years developing and structuring the industry, including helping to set up the INDP (national institute of packaging design), taking on the presidency of the PDA (association of European packaging designers) between 2009 and 2011 and founding the Designpack Gallery in 2008, the first venue open to the public (consisting of a bookshop, shop, exhibition space and conference centre) specifically dedicated to packaging design. A staunch proponent of responsible packaging that is both environmentally and human friendly, Peltier is one of the pioneers of eco-design. This led him to design the Allée du Recyclage, an exhibition space promoting the recycling of packaging, located in the Metro’s underground corridors at the foot of the Louvre. He has also been asked by UNIDO (united nations for industrial development organisation) to offer his advice and expertise to those living in developing countries.
By bringing these areas of expertise closer together, Diadeis is positioning itself as one of Europe's top packaging and operational marketing agencies. “The P’Référence takeover ties in with our global product growth strategy, which involves not just expanding geographically by opening new subsidiaries in Europe but also diversifying our services,” comments Guillaume Postel. “It will also enable us to introduce our customers to Fabrice Peltier's initiatives in terms of sustainable development, by applying the principles of eco-inking in particular.”  The company now numbers some 300 employees across the globe and works for some of the biggest advertisers in the world (such as Nestlé, Kraft Foods, Unilever, L'Oréal, Renault and PSA Peugeot Citroën).