Reluctant to persevere as a small player in a fiercely competitive market, outdoor company Gallop & Gallop has left the standard-sized poster business altogether – surrendering 20% of its revenue and allowing its former competitors to consolidate their Western-Canadian networks.

‘The price was right and we thought the time was right,’ says Greg Gallop, marketing manager for the Toronto-based company. Because the company is private, Gallop says he will not reveal any earnings figures. He does say, however, that it’s a ‘chunk’ of money and overhead will also be chopped.

‘We’re going to focus on products and markets where we will have the dominant advantage,’ he says.

According to Gallop, Montreal-based Omni the Outdoor Company exercised its option to buy some of Gallop’s poster faces – 318 units in Vancouver, Ottawa and Hamilton – through an agreement made with Gallop five years ago. Competitor Mediacom quickly swallowed up Gallop’s remaining 248 units in Calgary and Edmonton.

Both Gallop sales are to be completed by Oct. 31.

Last year at this time, when Outdoor Systems of Phoenix, Ariz., bought Mediacom, Alberta was the only province in which Mediacom had no presence. The outdoor giant recently entered the province through its purchase of 180 poster faces from Macdonald & Macdonald in Edmonton.

While Gallop is out of the standard 10 x 20 billboard business, it still owns and operates some giant billboards around Toronto, along with 10 x 30 backlit posters at about 20 airports across the country.

Other Gallop products include bus and transit advertising in several cities, including Ottawa-Hull, Kingston, Kelowna, Red Deer and Winnipeg, and 15,000 Flashmedia pos posters at convenience stores across Canada.

Gallop says besides investing in the transit and Flashmedia side of the business, he expects growth through the company’s Internet advertising arm, The Virtual Billboard Network. ‘It’s slowly starting to come along,’ he says.