James Warburton takes slice of Shopper Media Group

James Warburton has bought a stake in retail out-of-home operator Shopper Media Group.

Shopper Media co-founder Ben Walker, left, with James Warburton. Picture: John Feder.

James Warburton has landed his first media investment since exiting APN Outdoor late last year, acquiring a stake in retail out-of-home advertising operator Shopper Media Group.

The former Supercars and APN Outdoor boss, who is running his own consultancy, has joined the board of Shopper Media Group as non-executive ­director. He has purchased a stake in the business he tried to buy twice before.

“I did try to buy the business twice and obviously that got ­derailed to an extent with the purchase of APN Outdoor by JCDecaux,” Mr Warburton told The Australian.

“I said at the time when I was at APN Outdoor we wanted to get into … all the other areas like street furniture and retail.”

Mr Warburton, who would not disclose the size of his stake, joins co-founders Ben Walker and Edward Couche, as well as chairman and former Samsung global chief marketing officer David Morgan, in its move to grow the business.

According to Mr Warburton, who departed APN Outdoor after the $1.1 billion acquisition of the business by French giant JCDecaux, the business fits into plans to invest in assets which he can “add value”. Mr Warburton has also ­invested in Australian Racing Group and sits on the board of the motor sports events promoter as non-executive director.

He believes at some point Shopper Media Group, which is 49 per cent owned by Blue Sky and 51 per cent owned by management, including Mr Warburton’s stake, will have a “transaction” due to the “huge amount” of private equity interest.

“It complements so many media buys and there’s an enormous amount of scale available to the company,” he said.

Shopper Media Group’s Mr Walker described the media executive, who also worked as sales boss at Seven and also as Network Ten’s chief executive, as “media industry blue blood”.

“One of the things James is well known for is his capacity to win tenders and be a bit of a deal maker,” Mr Walker said.

“He’s pretty much media industry blue blood and for our business to be able to attract someone of high calibre is really exciting.”

Mr Walker said there were no immediate plans to scale internationally or sell the business, which operates in more than 300 shopping centres nationally, however he said the company was well positioned for growth through further rollout of its screen network: “For now it’s exclusively ­retail and we want to stay in the Australian market. But there is no doubt we would seek to do international growth in time.

“There’s absolutely no thought of a sale at any point in time in the foreseeable future.”

Both Mr Warburton and Mr Walker have disputed the idea Woolworths’ new media unit, Cartology, which will roll out its own screen network, will hurt Shopper Media Group.

“Most packaged-goods companies are fed up with giving Coles and Woolworths their money,” Mr Walker said.

“One thing I know is that when there is more competition, more people talking about similar products — being retail — that means more people are thinking about it, and therefore more people buy it.

“I really don’t think there’s insufficient funds sloshing around within the space that Cartology’s going to end up taking money from the rest of us.”