Machinery visited Mills CNC in June to hear about the changes and rebranding since a management buyout last year. It's no mere superficial 'paint job', as he discoveredThe term 'rebrand' is sometimes met dismissively and viewed as a shallow change billed as something with more substance. There's no way of telling, unless you either see or experience the elements that sit behind it first hand. But there is substance behind the recent rebrand of 66-employee, £34 million turnover Mills Manufacturing Technology as Mills CNC, announced in January this year, with more than £100,000 cash invested to underpin it.The change of name, explains sales and marketing director David Andrew, and one of four directors of the company which underwent a management buyout on 29 August last year, is because it more precisely reflects what the company does. "I often used to receive phone calls from potential suppliers asking us what it is we make, because the word 'manufacturing' in the company name implied that we were involved in manufacturing." In fact, Mills CNC was already the website name, and, as managing director Nick Frampton adds: "We were keen to stamp a new identity on the company to underline the change of management. We have a lot of ideas about how to take the company forward, plus it helped drive a step-change in company culture."
To stay at the visible level for a little longer, together with the name change has come a new logo, which, through the colours used, links the company directly with the machine tool colours of its principal, Doosan; and there's also a three-colour graphic comprised of the same colours and representing an 'M', in an Expressionist-type design – a consistent theme throughout branded staff clothing, marketing materials, and even posters and artwork, which are liberally distributed throughout the company's Leamington Spa, Warks, headquarters and showroom. Even company mobile phones display the three-colour logo, as do the umbrellas that protect customers as they travel between the company's two buildings.
Improved customer facilities in its showroom area take in an expanded reception/visitor coffee area on a mezzanine overlooking the showroom; extra discussion/break-out rooms at mezzanine and ground level, equipped with IT infrastructure; plus a central kitchen resource, complete with Sky TV, on the ground level.
The ground-level training room has seen the installation of an interactive white board, but is due for a complete refurbishment to bring it into line with the other, adjacent, high specification facilities. "We have what we believe to be the best facility in the UK machine tool industry, without being ostentatious about it," offers Mr Frampton.
http://www.machinery.co.uk/article/19247/Rebrand-not-skin-deep.aspx
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