Acquisition-Sparking Marketing for Glass Manufacturer in Leeds
Yorkshire-based glass manufacturer, Allied Glass, approached Halston B2B in 2020 looking to give their branding and marketing a complete overhaul.
Whilst they had previously run all marketing activities in-house, they were looking for a partner that could both understand the ins and outs of the company while leveraging expert B2B marketing knowhow to highlight what they were really capable of. With Allied’s historical roots dating back to the industrial revolution, the brand needed to be modernised whilst maintaining a nod to their legacy. With our lengthy experience in niche and heavy industries, Allied Glass knew that they could trust in us to do them justice.
Two years after our takeover of the brand’s marketing, in November 2022, Allied Glass were acquired by Verallia Group, the European leader and world’s third largest producer of glass packaging for beverages and food products. Allied Glass officially changed its name to Verallia UK in January 2023.
Allied Glass’ Market History
Allied Glass moved into Private Equity Ownership in December 2002. After 8 years, a secondary management buyout led by Alan Henderson was completed with Equistone Partners. In 2013 further growth of the company was facilitated by a new partner CBPE and the management team executed the next stage of UK growth with Sun Capital from December 2019. After the completion of a £45m Capital investment project to realign the companies two sites to provide more market focus, the company was purchased by Verallia SA , a French manufacturer with a global footprint looking to increase it’s footprint in the premium market.
Understanding the Market
Our first port of call when working with Allied Glass was to develop our understanding of their market, including their target personas and how they placed against their competitors. We were looking to solidify Allied Glass’ market presence and showcase their USPs, so we needed a deep understanding of the market landscape.
We ran persona research sessions to comprehend exactly who they were looking to sell to and how to speak to these people so that this could inform the base of our brand building. We also conducted extensive competitor research both from a portfolio and marketing perspective to give us a broad view on the market saturation and who Allied’s main contenders were.
A Smashing Rebrand
Our extensive research into the market and where Allied Glass were positioned within that market, overlaid with our findings from the persona sessions gave us the understanding we needed to start to rebuild the Allied Glass brand. From their creative presence right through to their PR, we began to overhaul their image and tone of voice.
Our creative team worked on the appearance of the brand bringing their heritage-focussed digital assets into the 21st century and creating visuals that would stand out in the marketplace, showcasing Allied Glass’ beautiful craft whilst also speaking to all of their target personas, from emerging brands through to established blue chip companies.
Within the rebrand we also altered the focus of Allied Glass’ communications. Rather than only posting about bottle projects and the glass they were producing, we looked to showcase some of their other USPs. We began posting about work they were doing within local communities and in particular put a strong focus on the sustainability projects that were running in-house and how they could help potential customers make their offerings more sustainable. Moving the focus of the communications away from only surrounding the product allowed us to build an actual brand around Allied and give a nod to what it is like to partner with them.
Holistic Marketing Strategy
Our strategy for Allied Glass took a holistic approach, with each activity supporting the overarching campaign messaging we were looking to delivery. We ran marketing activities across:
- PR
- Social media
- On-site content
- Events marketing
You can read the full extent of our marketing activities for Allied Glass in our dedicated case study.
A Shiny New Website
The final and crucial step in transforming Allied Glass was to build a new website. Their old site was dated, lacked in customer journey focus and didn’t do justice to their abilities as a manufacturer. We took the brand aesthetics that we had created for Allied Glass and poured it into a stunning new site, which was careful crafted to put their customers at the centre.
As well as the concentration on user experience, we ensured that the website showcased all of Allied Glass’ services, from design and manufacture through to decoration and logistics, and created tailored landing pages for each of their target consumers. The site content was created with searchability in mind and we focused on creating stronger, SEO friendly content than that which live don their previous site.
New Relationships
After the acquisition was complete, we worked with Verallia to also take over the internal communications for Verallia UK. Post-acquisition was an especially crucial time for the internal communications in now Verallia UK to have real structure. We ensured that developments in the acquisition were shared with employees in a timely fashion and looked to present a united front to employees as business activities settled back into normal routine.
Alongside this rebrand, we also implemented an engaging internal communication strategy that brought the new Verallia UK workforce into the fold and increased positivity around the acquisition. Read more by clicking the link below.
Looking to stand out from the crowd as part of your exit strategy?