Huntsworth chief executive Lord Chadlington has announced plans to strip his stable of brands down by consolidating them from 26 to four - Grayling, Citigate, Red and Huntsworth Health. The move comes after Huntsworth reported an 8.4% organic revenue decline in its PR business during the first six months of 2009.

Representing 44% of group revenues, Grayling will become the third-biggest independent PR firm in the world behind Edelman and Waggener Edstrom. Trimedia and Mmd will lose their brand names while Haslimann Taylor will also become part of Grayling, as an internal competition consultancy.

Huntsworth will look to grow its Citigate financial PR brand internationally to take on FD and Brunswick as a global market leader. Under a new holding company, the firm will expand into key financial centres. Consumer PR firm Red will continue under its own name and aims to expand overseas.

Lord Chadlington said he will discuss with the positioning of the respective agencies with management in the coming weeks. “We’re not going to force them into anything they do not want to go into,” he said. He said that the move was aimed at responding to client demand for seamless global service and he hopes the new structure will enable Huntsworth firms to win high value global mandates.