TECHNOLOGY & FACILITIES - Liberty creates new post house.

After two years of speculation US company Liberty Livewire has finally announced plans for the last merger within its stable of UK post facilities.Commercials post houses SVC and Soho 601 are to amalgamate to become One Post and, as Liberty Livewire pictures group president Mark Hewitt confirmed to Broadcast, this merger marks the end of Liberty's integration plans. 'For two years we've focused internally, and we've now finished that phase in our evolution. We can now take this to the marketplace,' says Hewitt, who now plans to take a much more aggressive approach to marketing the group to both drama and commercials clients.Previously, the company had brought several of its companies together - including moving Magmasters into 4MC and XTV into Soho 601. It also centralised sales operations to allow clients to use services across the group.Although this final merger will require nearly #1m of investment, Hewitt admitted that there will be redundancies. He revealed that job losses will be split evenly between Soho 601 and SVC and that after a four-week consultation with employees, the final numbers will be released.The money invested will be spent on expanding the company by setting up new departments. One Post will be based on Dean Street in Soho. Liberty is looking to hire out SVC's Wardour Street premises to a production company.The futures of managing directors David Robins (SVC) and Paul Jones (Soho 601) are still to be decided.Hewitt dismissed suggestions that merging two companies with a history of more than 50 years between them would be detrimental to business. He commented: 'It is a risk, but names have disappeared before. We have to go through a period of metamorphosis and no one ever rushes to embrace it. What I can't do is carry on with my strategy based on what's happened in the past.'Liberty Livewire has spent more than #100m buying London facilities in the past three years.