JCDecaux global boss sets sights on new contracts, slams Sydney Council street refurbish

The global chairman of billboard company JCDecaux has slammed Sydney council for cluttering the streets of the CBD as part of a multimillion-dollar refurbish of bus shelters, kiosks and billboards designed to modernise the city.

Jean-Francois Decaux, who launched JCDecaux Australia when he secured a 20-year contract with the City of Sydney in the late 1990s, expects a new nine-year contract with North Sydney council and a separate deal with Sydney trains to offset the decline in revenue his company lost at the end of a 20-year agreement to operate kiosks, toilets and billboards across Sydney’s CBD.

But Decaux said he was disappointed to lose the contract that began his company’s foray into Australia.

“When I first came here, street furniture was in a really bad condition,” Decaux said on his first local visit in more than two years. “We raised the bar tremendously. We were the first company to invite leading Australian architect Philip Cox to design a complete range of street furniture. I think our street furniture looks much more elegant than what it is on the street right now.”

Sydney city’s outdoor advertising contract is widely considered the most lucrative in the country. It is estimated to be worth between $500 to $600 million in advertising over a decade and covers 33 suburbs that make up the most populated city in Australia. For more than two decades, the contract was held by JCDecaux, a French-owned advertising giant that specialises in street furniture assets.

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But a messy legal battle between Telstra and the City of Sydney over the installation of new public phones started to erode the council’s relationship with JCDecaux. The relationship eventually ended and QMS Media, a billboard company led by Melbourne racing identity John O’Neill, was awarded the new contract which included the creation of “communication” billboards that could provide information about the city.

The change also led to the replacement of modern public payphones with older models to ensure QMS Media has advertising exclusivity in the CBD. In other capital cities, JC Decaux has worked with Telstra to install modern payphones. Decaux said the decision in Sydney will make the city look cluttered and outdated.

“[These phones] are what I saw 20 years back. In terms of the beautification and the service to the public, it’s going backwards with the old kit, which is not really up to date,” Decaux said. “The tender was designed so that the city would put so-called communication panels next to the payphone. This makes no sense. Almost every single city around the world is all about reducing clutter…and the City of Sydney is putting communication banners next to the payphones, increasing the clutter.”