Operating under the new name Agility, following the re-branding of PWC Logistics, this Kuwait-based corporate giant has opened a significant new chapter in its history.

With the change of name, launch of a new dragon logo and introduction of a new tagline – “A New Logistics Leader” – Agility has completed the integration of services across the PWC Logistics group of companies.
And with such industry leaders as GeoLogistics, TransOceanic and Trans-Link offering comprehensive freight management and logistics solutions on a global basis, Agility is projecting a unified face with the promise of total dedication to customers’ interests.
“We are very pleased to unveil the new Agility name and branding,” says Tarek Sultan, chairman and managing director of Agility. “Though we have a new name, we are still well known for our rich heritage – PWC Logistics, GeoLogistics, TransOceanic and Trans-Link among others. With Agility, we have woven our capabilities into a single brand name with one goal – to provide the best personal service possible.”
Elaborating on the re-branding theme, Sultan says: “Within the PWC Logistics group of companies we had many well known and leading logistics brands. The new brand name we sought had to be a perfect description of our character, mission, vision and goals – which was an exceptional challenge because we wanted to convey all of that with just one word,” he adds.
Commenting on the rationale for re-branding, Agility’s senior vice president for strategic marketing and growth initiatives, Christopher Logan, says its purpose was to “unify our many ‘best in class’ companies under one brand with one global face to the market.” He added that it also clarified “the integrated nature of our global portfolio of logistics solutions.”
Despite the strong brand recall enjoyed by the legacy companies, Logan feels it was in the long-term interest of the company to venture down the road of re-branding as he believes this will pay huge dividends. And he enthuses that the market response to Agility has been phenomenal and is confident the well-planned brand migration programme will transition the company’s brand equity across to the Agility name.
Explaining the choice of name, Logan says the word ‘Agility’ describes the culture of the organisation, its speed and dexterity in responding to customers’ needs. “We feel it is fresh, inspirational and reflects the dynamic nature of the organisation,” he says.
“We examined all trademarks owned throughout the PWC Logistics family of companies and explored a wide range of completely new names. We selected the perfect brand name for our company, our customers and our collective aspirations.”
Describing the symbolism of the chosen logo, Logan says, “The dragon icon is a powerful metaphor, common across different cultures of the world. It symbolises wisdom, independence, heritage, empowerment, leadership, trade, strength and speed.”
Logan believes Agility’s edge over other logistics service providers lies in the company acting as a logistics partner is a world of logistics providers. It focuses on providing personal service which sets it apart from competitors in this business arena. And moving forward he affirms that the company has plans to invest its time, efforts and resources to continue to upgrade and enhance its customer services. Agility is striving to achieve this through additional training to its team of employees to ensure they are effective in delivering the same personal service throughout the spectrum of its networks.
 “Consistent with the re-branding, our marketing strategy has undergone some refinement as it targets both internal and external audiences,” says Logan. “Internally we focus on building momentum around our brand positioning that emphasises personal service to our customers. While our research shows that this is already a great strength of our organisation we continue to drive our efforts in enhancing this. Externally, we will first focus on building brand awareness for Agility, migrating the brand equity of our existing brands to the new one. Over time our marketing efforts will be honed to target increasingly specific segments of the markets.”
The company expects the re-branding exercise to be completed by 2008 as this is a mammoth exercise spanning the entire gamut of Agility’s operations. Agility is a $4.5 billion company with 20,000 employees located in 450 offices across 100 countries. And the re-branding covers all logistics companies that come under its umbrella ranging from those dealing with warehousing to operators in logistics and transportation with nine existing brands.  The company has a collective history of hundreds of years. With such a rich heritage and huge brand equity across the globe, changes cannot be initiated overnight, Logan says. “This calls for meticulous planning and efficient execution to ensure the strong brand equity we currently enjoy is seamlessly transferred to the new Agility brand.”
The re-branding process created several challenges for the company which were faced squarely, affirms Logan. Thankfully most of these could be addressed through people and the right kind of leadership. Being a service industry with the kind of global reach and large staff it has, people issues can assume complex dimensions. But Agility has adopted an inclusive policy and involved the leadership of each acquired company to create a truly integrated branding team from the top of the organisation, which enhanced the buy-in across the network.
“At the staff level this re-branding project is seen as a positive development,” stresses Logan. “They see this new brand projecting a unified global face, offering greater brand focus and greater clarity to who we are as a company and what services we bring to the market.”
Announcing the new name to the employees was an important exercise. The company organised major employee events at all its offices around the world including presentations, made by senior management as well as different department heads. Each employee received a package with a few personal items branded with the new name.
As Agility sets its sights on multi-billion-dollar growth goals, it is focusing on continually improving its customer service, and ensuring that all staff ‘live the brand’ of Agility’s market-leading personal service.