Seven months ago, Imperial's executive committee appointed an internal senior brand team to investigate the merits of establishing an umbrella brand to unite the group. Black Branding, a strategic branding agency, was chosen to partner Imperial on this exciting journey. After detailed research, Imperial chose a hybrid brand architecture structure, one which best suits Imperial's diversified and entrepreneurial business.  The Group chose to retain some strong individual brands which already have an entrenched market presence, and at the same time, re-invent, and strengthen the Imperial brand.

Commenting on the Group's re-branding, Hubert Brody, CEO said: "With our most visible presence, Imperial Car Rental, evolving to Europcar, we felt it was important to determine whether we could reposition Imperial as more than just a car and truck rental company.  Branding has become a central tool in business competitiveness, and we realised that more effective branding could provide a competitive advantage in our markets. We are excited about building a new Imperial brand identity - one which has the strength, stability and security of our existing brand, but also has new characteristics which are relevant to all stakeholders in our diverse market place".

Consistent branding also enables the group to capitalise on the synergies between its various businesses. Brody continued, "Our large corporate customers prefer to do business with an Imperial company - they recognize the strength of the Imperial name. Our clients believe that a company carrying the Imperial brand stands for integrity, humility, passion, excellence and entrepreneurship".

Imperial's new branding strategy also incorporates a new positioning statement - 'Fast moving, Forward thinking', wording which encompasses the spirit of entrepreneurship, but is also flexible enough to capture the many different aspects of the diversified business. 'Fast moving, Forward thinking' embodies the energy and dynamism of the new Imperial brand, and confirms the Group's chosen focus areas of expansion: logistics, tourism and selected aspects of financial services.

Imperial's most recent set of results indicates how the Group has benefited from the restructuring actions taken over the past two years. Highlighting how the new branding reflects a re-invigorated Imperial, Brody concluded: "We are confident that Imperial is well positioned to take advantage of the market upturn. Importantly, the fundamentals of our business remain strong: increased globalisation is ensuring the attractiveness of the logistics industry, and South Africa has significant potential for further growth in logistics. South Africa will also remain an important tourist destination and our car rental and coach business position us to capitalise strongly on tourism opportunities.  The re-branded Imperial is now ideally placed to continue "Fast moving, Forward thinking".

Enquiries:

Imperial Holdings:

-        Tak Hiemstra                          083 325 4732

Issued by:

Brunswick SA                                     (011) 502 7300

-        Anne Dunn                              082 448 2684

-        Carol Roos                              082 490 4182