ANALYSIS: Horne logo change to simplify offering.(Robert Horne)(Brief Article)

As part of its ongoing redesign, Robert Horne is replacing its 37-year-old 'H' logo, writes Andy Scott

'Changing an identity as powerful as ours was not a decision we took lightly.'

One would expect nothing less from Toby Marchant, the oft-quoted managing director of paper merchant Robert Horne Group.

The famous 'H' logo, synonymous with the Robert Horne name for 37 years, has undergone a strategic redesign and interpretation, creating the group's new corporate identity (PrintWeek, 6 September).

After reorganising the group's operating companies from 11 to six, Marchant felt the time was right to present it as a unified force. Each operating company will not only retain its own name, but will also carry the new identity, allowing the merchant to present itself as 'a single, broad-based group'.

Over the last decade, the group has almost doubled in size and - through a period of seven acquisitions - it recognised the need to simplify its offering, says Marchant.

It has undoubtedly come a long way since its creation by Robert Horne, the son of a Scottish printer, in 1925. It evolved into the force it is today under the stewardship of Robert's son, Kenneth Horne, who joined in 1947 aged 40.