Brand development case study | Arlington Automotive

Arlington Automotive

Brand development

Challenge

Financed by a U.S. private equity firm, Arlington Industries Group was established in 2013. The management team identified that through the acquisition of key suppliers, they could provide OEM customers with a more streamlined supply chain. We needed to present these several acquisitions as a united group, now offering a more robust, fully integrated supply chain.

Strategy

Armstrong created a brand architecture for current and future acquisitions, along with an integration programme. This supported a buy and build model, presenting Arlington as a single source supplier for automotive OEMs and the aftermarket. By building a new brand within the established markets and supply chains, we would both create a powerful proposition to deliver a concise message to both internal and external audiences.

Creative

With a newly defined purpose of ‘supply chain integration’, we developed a house style for every current and future acquisition, with a standardised programme of integration. With the new divisions in place, Armstrong now set about designing and delivering a major branding project. Announcing the changes through internal and external communications, we followed this with a tailored website and finally a total rebrand of the site and workforce.

Result

Over the four years we’ve worked with Arlington, sales have grown from £92m to £271m, and Arlington also achieved 4th place in the ‘Sunday Times Profit Track 100’. We developed and launched the new brand architecture for Automotive, establishing Thermal Management and Engineered Systems as two divisions. An international press relations programme and global key account marketing have supported the overseas expansion, with subsidiaries now in France, Germany, Turkey, India, Slovakia, China, Brazil and North America.

Arlington Automotive