New Corporate Identity
Wayne Du Chenne, executive director - Global Business Services, explains why AEL has launched a new logo and changed its name to AEL Mining Services.

2010 ushered in an exciting year for AEL when the company launched its new corporate identity at the end of January.

With the restructuring at AEL over the last two years, coupled with changes in the industry, it became evident that AEL needed to redefine and re-energise its brand to take the group to the next level, not only for its staff, but external stakeholders as well.

The process took over a year to complete and included identifying a group of AEL brand champions, who together with the executive committee and external stakeholders, informed the brand strategy process over a series of workshops and interviews.

The rebranding of AEL and the evolution of its name to include the descriptor 'Mining Services' was well received by both staff and customers alike.

AEL's previous logo and corporate identity was a trusted 'old friend' that loyally served the group for over fifty years, but following the transformation of the organisation, it became clear that we needed to re-energise our brand in order to remain relevant and embrace the changes that have taken place.

With our illustrious history that spans over 100 years, AEL has largely focussed on business in Southern Africa, expanding to include a significant African footprint, and more recently focussing on international markets in South East Asia, Europe and South America.

What is really encouraging about AEL's new brand strategy and corporate identity is that the changes in the group have already been set in motion over the past two years, which means the next five years are about consolidating our efforts to become a totally customer-centric, and marketing focussed organisation that truly lives its brand values of 'confidence, courage and care' and leads the explosives' industry with innovative solutions.

The new logo remains red and retains the arrow from the previous branding but in a different form. The arrowhead of the new corporate identity is forward and outward looking, which symbolises what we're doing, while the energy insignia is at the heart of our business. The addition of “Mining Services” at the end creates a full descriptor of the business.

Our new slogan is 'wealth unearthed', which combines with awesome 'earth' images in recognition of our understanding of the enormous responsibility of our role in mining the earth, and the importance of mining to the welfare of the people and the development of economies.

We look forward to unveiling our new corporate identity worldwide in the form of new marketing material, which includes our product catalogue, product packaging, website, company profile and other rebranded marketing collateral.

Enjoy reading this issue and sharing in the new energy at AEL!