Eircom unveils its €16m rebrand

Eircom has unveiled its new identity as Eir and left behind the brand it had carried through good times and bad since 1999.

The company has invested an estimated €16m in the overhaul of its image which it describes as a major milestone for the company which revitalises and modernises the look and feel of the group.

“If you’ve seen the identity, you can see it’s a fundamental change. It’s a much more aspirational, much more modern look.

"It’s not €16m on creating a logo,” said Eir director of corporate affairs Paul Bradley.

“What we’re talking about is bringing that to life… that’s where the money’s spent, not in the creation of an identity.”

Some 100 outside agencies were employed to deliver what Eir says is the largest rebranding in Ireland in the past 20 years.

I like the new Eir (formerly Eircom) logo - a nice, modern, dynamic look. Well done whoever designed it. pic.twitter.com/GEcPcBEakq

— John Finn 🇪🇺 🇮🇪 (@carrigman) September 16, 2015

All 63 stores will be revamped as part of the overhaul with external signage visible at all stores from yesterday and nine stores fully refitted with the rest to follow by November.

Similarly, 150 of the company’s 1,500 vans have been overhauled with the rest of the fleet to be get a makeover in the coming weeks.

Eir has also launched Ireland’s fastest broadband which it says will allow customers to download high definition videos in seven seconds.

The company also announced that it will become the first company in Ireland to introduce 24/7 broadband and TV technical support.

The rebrand will not affect the Meteor mobile network which will remain as a standalone brand within the Eir group.

For prizes, surprises and the @98FM crew, call into our brand new store on Dublin’s Henry Street today #eir pic.twitter.com/dE9SpUkqkD

— eir (@eir) September 16, 2015

The group’s consumer and business divisions will operate under the new Eir brand while the wholesale and network businesses will trade as Open Eir.

Its suite of products will undergo a name change with Emobile becoming Eir Mobile and Evision and Efibre being similarly rebranded.

Since its last rebrand in 1999 when Telecom Eireann became Eircom, the company has endured peaks and troughs with examinership a particular low point.

Last month, a network outage affected thousands of customer which the company said represented 5% of its network traffic.

In recent times, the company returned to a healthier financial state and earlier this month announced a strong set of results that saw a 3% in earnings to €481m in the year to the end of June and revenues of €1.27bn.

Its last rebranding was soon followed by an IPO but having dropped plans for a third flotation last September chief executive, Richard Moat has said no such plans are on the table.