Jobs axed at Ooh Media as retail media arm closed down
Ooh Media CEO James Taylor at the company's recent Unmissable event (Mumbrella)
Ooh Media has laid off staff as it shutters its retail media arm, Reo, by the end of the financial year amid slower growth and a client base increasingly shifting to in-house retail media operations.
The ASX-listed outdoor media company confirmed to Mumbrella it will “no longer pursue new retail partners” under the Reo brand, with the business to be wound up by 30 June.
Of Reo’s existing clients, Ooh Media said Petbarn’s retail media operations will transition to its in-house team. Australia Post, which partnered with the company to launch an in-store retail media network last February, is understood to have stopped working with Ooh Media’s Reo unit as of August.
The decision, which has not yet been announced on the ASX, was attributed to the division’s growth, which “progressed more slowly than anticipated with retailers showing a clear preference for in-house retail media solutions”, according to a statement provided to Mumbrella from CEO James Taylor.
“By concentrating on our core OOH business, we are positioning oOh! to deliver stronger, more sustainable returns.
“In discussions with our valued retail media client, Petbarn, we have both identified better outcomes for our businesses with the effective transition of the Petbarn PetAds omnichannel offering to be operated in-house by the Petbarn team. This will include a structured transition period to 30 June 2026.”
Taylor also confirmed that Ooh Media had “made the difficult decision to make a number of redundancies within the Reo team”, but said the company will continue to operate Reo’s in-store screen network partnerships.
Ooh Media launched its retail media arm in 2022, later revamping it to Reo during a period of expansion in the division in 2025.
As well as Petbarn and Australia Post, Reo also worked with Officeworks and noted its increased operational costs in its retail media arm in last year’s financial results due to the “delivery of new contracts”.
The division, alongside its large-format printing arm Cactus, collectively saw its revenue increase by 51% in 2025, bringing in $19.7 million together.
Across the group, gross profit rose 10% to $475.6 million, while EBITDA increased 14% to $328 million.
However, a $30 million impairment linked to the loss of the Auckland Transport contract, including a $25 million goodwill write-down, saw profit after tax fall 54% from $36.6 million to $16.9 million. The contract had previously contributed about $18 million in revenue in 2025.
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