- Mechan is a world leader in the design and manufacture of mechanical handling equipment for the rail industry
- It has been in business for more than 35 years and is known for its reliability
- But by 2005 its image had begun to look dated
- Faced with a static UK market and growing competition from manufacturers abroad, it needed to make an impact.
- With the help of a strategic design consultancy, Mechan introduced a new brand identity to cement its reputation and to drive growth overseas.
Mechan designs, develops and manufactures mechanical handling equipment for the rail industry and the petrochemical and aerospace sectors.
Based in Chapeltown, Sheffield, the business is split into two parts. Mechan Ltd produces jib cranes for steel processing, power generation and for use in petrochemical and marine environments, and also mechanical handling equipment for the rail industry.
Mechan Technology was formed in 1998 to design and develop Mechan’s patented railcar lifting jack control system, Micro Link. This division has enjoyed rapid growth and has extended its products to include railway depot protection systems.
It’s a business with a solid reputation for quality, safety and reliability and its customers value its ability to make products that last. It’s best known for its work in the rail industry but has potential in other areas and is keen to find new markets abroad. However, before it got to work on improving its image in 2005 its corporate identity and use of photography was very dated.
Through Business Link South Yorkshire, Mechan enrolled in the Design Council’s Designing Demand programme, which helps companies discover what design can do for them.
Designing Demand is part of the Government’s national package of publicly funded business support products, Solutions for Business.
The programme appoints a Design Associate – an experienced designer or design manager - who acts as a mentor and advisor in defining and running a design project. In this case it was Evan Kitsell. ‘I think Mechan was attracted to the programme because it wanted to understand how design could be used as a business tool,' says Kitsell, 'but it lacked the confidence and experience to select designers or to ensure they were getting value for money.'
At around the same time, Richard Carr joined the company as Business Development Director. ‘I’d known Mechan for about 20 years as a customer,’ he says. ‘They needed to be dragged out of the 1980s in terms of how they looked to the outside world and one of my first tasks was to identify our brand values and develop our image to reflect those values.’
When Richard Carr joined Sheffield-based engineering firm Mechan as Business Development Director he knew that the company needed a new identity and an updated website.
‘Mechan has its own internal design department for designing and developing mechanical handling equipment. The staff had shown an interest in other aspects of design across the business, but their primary focus was product design and so the image got left behind and trapped in the 1980s,’ Carr says. ‘Our reputation for quality, reliability and for being market leading simply wasn’t reflected in our identity.’
Inspired by the Designing Demand programme and working with Design Associate Evan Kitsell, Carr saw some real opportunities to move the business forward, so they set about identifying the brand’s strengths by talking to senior management, employees and customers.
‘We went through the process properly,’ he says. ‘I was very keen for it to be done the right way round. I didn’t want to get a pretty logo and then worry about everything else later. We looked at perceptions internally and externally, plus customer feedback and used all that to end up with a brand image that reflects what the business is about.’
Evan Kitsell adds: ‘We gathered intelligence to confirm what we already knew, but also to learn some new things. We talked to staff to get their views and to existing customers, many of whom have been customers for a long time. It was all very positive feedback – customers spoke well of the company and what it did, so the next step was to get an identity that matched people’s views.’
