Lloyds Bank
How do you rebrand over 400 locations around the UK, installing new signage quickly and safely, ahead of a major change in your business operations? This was the challenge facing Lloyds TSB as the company embarked on an enormously complex project to comply with a European Commission ruling in 2009 to divest part of the business.
Lloyds Bank first started in 1756 as a private bank in Birmingham and had grown to become a major provider of financial services. Now, nearly 250 years later, the bank would split the retail banking division, creating two banking entities called Lloyds Bank and Trustee Savings Bank. The result would be separate banking locations for each brand, with new signage and branding for every site.
Blaze had been involved with the Lloyds Bank rebranding project from the beginning and in 2010 we were commissioned to produce prototype signage for review. Following this, we were awarded the prestigious contract to be the lead signage supplier by the high street bank to rebrand their high-street locations.
During a 17-month period we undertook a comprehensive signage update project. Every branch to be rebranded as Lloyds Bank was surveyed, detailed design drawings produced and planning permission for the work secured.
The installation for each site would vary. Branches could be situated along busy roads, rural high streets, pedestrian precincts or within shopping centres. For the straightforward locations zip-up scaffolding would provide a speedy and safe means to install the new signage, while more difficult-to-reach buildings would require fixed scaffolding or specialist access equipment.
Finally, the new signage could be installed at each Lloyds Bank branch across the length and breadth of the UK.
In 2013, 437 former Lloyds TSB branches were updated with fresh new Lloyds Bank branding by Blaze. We used our 120,000 square feet of manufacturing capacity – amongst the largest in Europe -to produce a full range of external signage for every site. The package included:
- Illuminated fascias
- Non-illuminated fascias
- Projecting signs
- Individual letters
- ATM surrounds
- Nameplates.
All new signage was produced in the distinctive new Lloyds Bank corporate image.
It took just 24 weeks to complete the entire installation programme. By the time the exhaustive project was completed by our expert installation team, we’d installed over two miles of Lloyds Bank fascia and re-signed an average of 18 branches, of all different locations, shapes and sizes, per week.
As this project was to be undertaken ahead of the launch of the new Lloyds Bank brand, we were asked to supply robust temporary signage to cover-over the newly installed signs, which remained in place until the official Lloyds Bank unveiling over a week-end period.
Jacqueline Spark, Blaze Signs Account Manager oversaw the mammoth project from start to finish and says:
“We’re geared-up for large roll-out programs such as these, but they can still sometimes be a challenge from a logistical, planning, manufacturing and installation point of view. But thanks to the great relationship we have with Lloyds, nothing stopped us from getting the job done on time and to our usual exacting standards”.
It’s not the first project Blaze Signs has handled for the leading banking firm. We’ve been producing internal signage for Lloyds Bank for over a decade, as well as external signage for new sites. We were also awarded the contract to supply and install London 2012 logos for all Lloyds locations, to promote their sponsorship of the Olympic and Paralympic Games.
Following the creation and installation of new branding signage for Lloyds Bank, our sister maintenance company, Cygnia handle the regular upkeep of Lloyds signage to keep it looking as fresh now as it did when it was first installed.
