Today’s launch will see the pan-European group join up the ‘packaging’, ‘recycling’, ‘plastics’ and ‘paper’ tags in the names of its various divisions and marks the culmination of more than 18 months of internal integration work after the acquisition of Swedish group SCA Packaging.
Tony Foster, sales and marketing director at DS Smith, today told PN: “It’s 18 months since we came together with SCA and in that time we’ve been particularly focusing on unifying the sales structure, the design and innovation process and so on.
“Today’s launch is the public symbol of that and is saying to the world that we are now a unified business.”
Foster added that the group would push two slogans – ‘the power of less’ and ‘lightening the load’ – to stress the group’s focus on improving supply chain efficiencies for its clients.
DS Smith chief executive Miles Roberts added in a statement: “Bringing our packaging, paper, plastics and recycling operations together means we can offer customers a complete service from design and production right through to supply and recycling.
“The decision to bring all our operations under one clear strong brand was the natural next step for us.”
The move has also brought a new look for the group’s logo, which includes a ‘D’-shaped orange symbol that echoes the colour used in part of the group’s previous logo.
The group’s website has relaunched today with the new design, while liveries for trucks, factories and so on will roll out in the coming months.
The launch of the new look follows a period of expansion for the business that have made it one of Europe’s biggest packaging groups with sales of £3.7bn and more than 20,000 employees.
As well as the £1.3bn acquisition of SCA Packaging in early 2012, DS Smith also bought French group Otor in 2010.
Roberts said: “DS Smith has gone through a major transformation in the last few years.
“We are now able to offer a much wider product and service portfolio and operate on a much larger scale as a strategic partner with cross-industry expertise, while at the same time continuing to offer our customers a local, personal service.”
