We Have Rebranded: Name Changes Deliver Broader Customer Perspective for Dawsongroup

After over 40 years of using the Dawsonrentals name across its various asset provision businesses, Dawsongroup is switching to use of its group title. Dawsonrentals truck & trailer, for example, will now be known as Dawsongroup truck & trailer. The company’s other businesses, vans, materials handling, bus and coach, sweepers, temperature control solutions, temporary kitchens, portable cold rooms and finance, will each replace Dawsonrentals in their name with the Dawsongroup prefix.

Explaining the move, group chief executive, Steve Miller, said, “There are two aspects to the decision. The first is that the ‘rentals’ element of our individual business names had become misleading: for many years now we have also offered leasing, contract hire, finance options and both new and used asset sales, so the new name is less of a ‘pigeon-hole’ for people’s perceptions. The second is that, for far too long, the group opportunity has not been fully understood by customers. The simple truth is that our truck and trailer customers are just as likely to be interested by what the group offers in vans, forklifts and sweepers, but the connections weren’t being made.

“Now, and the name change is part of this, we have started to help customers take advantage of the synergies and economies to be made by shopping across the group: a loyalty benefit, for want of a better description. In the last 18 months of starting to put the message across in a low-key way, we have seen remarkable sales uplifts. This is a welcome bonus from our point of view, but more important it is benefitting our customers, who enjoy enhanced price structures from doing business across other businesses in the group. It also makes their lives simpler in terms of contact, finance and administration, and we now have senior group sales and marketing personnel to help them get the most out of it. Each business retains its autonomy in terms of management, profitability and reporting, but they now have the added advantage of a cross-group sales and marketing structure to help them.”

Dawsongroup is a privately owned and managed business, which turned over £206m in 2016. It directly employs around 820 people, across some 30 UK branches and 6 subsidiary operations across Europe, all run from its central headquarters in Milton Keynes.