Branding and communications agency Pigeon Brands has new owners, with founder Thomas Pigeon selling his eponymous agency to long-time president Elyse Boulet and Kairos Capital.
“There is no one better positioned than Elyse and the Pigeon team to continue growing the company and playing a leading role in transforming our industry,” said Thomas Pigeon in a release. “Elyse is an excellent communicator, an integrated communications specialist, and a reference point for branding in the country.”
Boulet has been with Pigeon for seven years, but has held agency leadership posts for nearly 20 years, first at lg2, followed by Publicis, Saint-Jacques Vallée Y&R, and Taxi before arriving at Pigeon in 2017. She was named president in 2020.
For much of its history, Pigeon was known for brand design, with an emphasis on CPG and packaging, Boulet told Campaign. But in recent years, it’s been evolving to provide a wider service offering to help brands all along the customer journey—from business strategy and trade communications, to consumer advertising and communications, and in-store.
“We're blessed with the trust of our clients to really express the brand identity in all the different channels, so it creates a really coherent story,” she said. “We consider everything important, whether it's that sales sheet that no other agencies will touch because it's not important to them—for us, it's really important.”
The agency has about 80 staff roughly equally divided between its Montreal and Toronto office, which is led by Ania Russocki. The rest of the senior management team includes Stéphane Crevier, VP strategy and growth; Jean-François Béliveau, creative director 360; Olivier Chevillot, executive creative director; Armelle Dubourg, VP client service; Martin Carriere, head client service Toronto; Philippe Morin, VP production; Greg Clark, head of finance.
While Pigeon has recently been adding clients from international markets including the US, Italy and China, key domestic clients include Danone, IKEA, Corby Spirit and Wine, Irving, Hershey, and Metro, and the agency prides itself on its long-term relationships with many clients. “Our average client tenure is 14 years,” said Boulet.
“Pigeon’s client-centric ethos fosters trust and long-term partnerships,” said Alain Tadros, vice-president of marketing and digital strategy at Metro Inc.
Boulet declined to provide specifics on the acquisition or Kairos’ ownership stake, but said she retains control of the business’s day-to-day operations.
“I've been the managing partner for years, so in that regard, we're not changing. We're just continuing on the path that we're on,” she said.
The difference will be contributions from the Kairos executives on the new Pigeon board for high level decisions and strategy.
“I met with many other organizations. I met with other agencies… I wanted to make sure that we would still have control over what we would be doing,” she said. But Kairos’ involvement means that Pigeon will not just have financial support, but access to its experience and expertise. “I have access to seasoned professionals who challenge me a lot, challenge our team on how we can create better value,” said Boulet.
Those seasoned professionals include Patrick Lauzon, a well-known media executive who Boulet has known and worked with for 35 years. Lauzon worked at companies including Bell, Quebecor, and TC Media before joining Kairos.
And unlike some private equity partners which can be focused on big changes to drive short-term returns, Kairos has a “long-term vision of things,” she said. “There's nothing broken to be fixed [at Pigeon]. It's more accelerating what's happening. And that's what Kairos found.”
“Kairos Capital’s arrival as a shareholder will allow Pigeon to benefit not only from the expertise of seasoned professionals in its management team but also from additional capital to invest in its resources, enhance its expertise, offer ever more innovative solutions to its clients, and support its growth organically and through acquisitions,” said Nancy Lessard, partner at Kairos. “Together, we aim to break more glass ceilings along the way and lead the company to new heights of success.”
It is a tumultuous time for the industry, and the pace of change is unlikely to slow as new technology like AI starts to have an even greater impact on agency work.
But Boulet chose to buy Pigeon now because she is excited about the future, and believes her new agency is well-positioned to thrive even in the face of change. “If we're scared of that, we'll never do anything. We'll be stale,” she said. “So you either hop on the train or you hop out.”
