by Andrew Coulsen, CEO
May, 2022 It’s about a year since I took on the role of CEO here at Spandex. Like any incoming CEO, one of my first priorities was to get under the skin of the business and its people, assess our strengths, and map out a clear route forward, aligned to what’s changing for our customers.
What I found in Spandex was exceptional: a business offering sign-makers and graphics producers an incredible choice of products, with service and support grounded in deep specialist knowledge and a profound understanding of what these creative service businesses need from a materials supplier. But we don’t want to stop here. Building on what we have, we aim to expand our product portfolio and our global presence to bring these benefits to even more customers. And we want to continue to grow our offering in vertical markets such as architecture, interior décor and textile.
The Spandex brand has now been part of the visual communications landscape for five decades. But in that time what we offer, the values that drive us, and our vision of what we can deliver for our customers have evolved substantially. And our organisation has grown, organically and by acquisition. We’re now present in 19 countries, and we’ve integrated many specialist national and regional suppliers. In doing so, we’ve massively expanded our sales and service capability, adding products and layers of expertise, as well as welcoming thousands of new customers.
Looking at this organisation today and thinking about our future, one thing was crystal clear to me. Wherever they are, our customers and partners need to see a unified Spandex brand that communicates clearly what we stand for, what we are and what we want to be. So, this week we’re introducing a refreshed Spandex logo and a new strapline, that will cover all our sales companies in Europe and Australia. For some of our customers, the changes are pretty subtle. For those who previously bought from the legacy brands that are now rebranded as Spandex, they’ll be more obvious.
But a logo and company name are not what matter here. What matters is the substance behind our fresh visual identity. Those concentric circles in our new Spandex logo tell many stories. Firstly, they stand for our core product – the rolls of vinyl that we’re best known for and which are at the heart of our portfolio. And they reflect the stages of evolution and expansion of our business – how we’ve developed our expertise, our offering and our customer reach.
Look twice and you’ll see that the circles move outwards, just as we’re taking our materials and applications expertise out into new markets. And they represent our ambitions towards a circular economy. By that, I mean our firm commitment to sourcing and developing environmentally responsible products and solutions that will help our customers to build more sustainable businesses. Finally, those circular waves symbolise our energy and ambition to unlock exciting opportunities for our customers and stimulate positive momentum in our visual communications sector.
And we’ve captured that aspiration in our new strapline too: INSPIRING CREATIVITY. Because what we do is about much more than supplying materials. Our customers are creative people who bring brands, images and creative concepts to life – whether that’s on signage, graphics, textiles, vehicles, windows, floors or walls. Looking ahead, we want to help them imagine new possibilities and maximise their creative and commercial potential with products from Spandex, backed by our knowledge and expertise in applications.
At Spandex, we’re looking to the future with a fresh face and a clear vision. We hope you’ll follow us.
Author – Andrew Coulsen
Andrew Coulsen is the CEO of Spandex Group, one of the world’s leading suppliers of materials, sign systems, displays and equipment to the sign making, graphics, architectural and vehicle wrapping markets.
