New name, rich heritage

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Exxaro executive general manager for corporate affairs and investor relations, Trevor Arran, says that “Powering Possibility” captures the nature of the business and its unique benefit.

“As a resource company, we are the starting point of the value chain and our products affect all industries in one way or another – hence we power industry and business, and create possibility through delivering innovative and sustainable products to benefit us and generations to come,” he says.

Creative process

Arran describes the re-branding process as a bold and creative one. Strategic branding company, Harwood Kirsten Leigh McCoy (HKLM), was hired to determine the strategic intent, develop the brand platform, generate the name and develop a new design that is African but globally relevant.

According to HKLM MD Sean McCoy, generating a name that would be new and unusual, would have meaning, longevity, be easy to pronounce, and be available in both the local and global environment was an exacting but exhilarating process.

“Working against strict guidelines and criteria in conjunction with the client, we systematically filtered and eliminated more than 1200 names until ‘Exxaro’ was shortlisted,” he says.

Coat of arms

Providing further grounding in South African heritage, the new name is also linked to our country’s credo on the South African coat of arms, !ke e:/xarra//ke, written in the Khoisan language of the /Xam people, meaning “diverse people unite” or “people who are different joining together”. The word is also derived from the Latin word “exaro”, which means to dig.

In determining the colour perspective of the new identity, a palette has been created outside the norm in terms of the traditionally conservative mining industry, ultimately developing a space that Exxaro could own.

The bright shade of green has been selected to reflect roots, growth and a new way of thinking that is positive and instantly recognisable. Without requiring additional iconography, the use of the double XX in Exxaro allows for an invaluable symbolism in terms of the new organisation’s people and its philosophy of being “people powered”.

“The new identity speaks to everything we, as a company, aspire to and all employees have welcomed it wholeheartedly,” says Arran.