The global firm, whose brands include Dulux paints, currently has "around 100" agencies it works with across consumer PR, corporate communications, public affairs and other PR categories, according to Andrew Wood, a senior spokesman from the company's PR team, based in its Amsterdam.

"The aim is to reduce the number of agencies executing our strategy," he said. Asked whether any current agencies held an overarching global role, he said currently all briefs were either local or specialist.

Wood explained that the change "follows greater integration of the company and the comms team to make it more centralised".

He said there was no set timetable for the review.

The process is being run through agency intermediary Creativebrief. The London-based company declined to comment.

AkzoNobel has 45,000 employees and made €10.7bn (£9.1bn, $11.4bn) in the first nine months of 2016, its most recent financial results show. Net income for the Q1-Q3 period was up eight per cent on the year before.