Womersley Fine Foods range gets a Mayday rebrand

Mayday is redesigning the branding and packaging for gourmet food company Womersley Fine Foods, in an attempt to commercialise the range.

Womersley appointed Mayday last month through the Design Council’s Designing Demand initiative, which matches designers with businesses. Mayday saw off WPA Pinfold and Sheffield-based groups Ledgard Jepson and Vivid Creative in a credentials pitch.

Womersley, a West Yorkshire-based family firm, briefed Mayday to come up with a new visual identity and packaging for its 24-strong range of herb and fruit dressings, oils and preserves.

‘It will be a major departure as the current design does not set the world on fire,’ says Mayday director Roger Ackroyd. ‘We will bring out the horticultural elements of the brand as well as its fine-food values, which have not been in evidence before.’

Ackroyd describes the current packaging, which features a crest and gold detailing, as ‘gift-style’, leaving the consumer with ‘no clue as to whether it is credible in a professional kitchen sense’.

Womersley has reduced its range from about 70 products ‘to improve product comprehension’, says Womersley managing director Rupert Parsons, son of founder Martin Parsons, who started the business in the 1970s as an extension of his hobby.

‘He started dabbling with herbal vinegars and it turned into a major obsession,’ says Ackroyd. Parsons, who took over from his father at the start of the year, hopes the new branding will raise the brand’s profile among the public and professional chefs. ‘It amazes me that given our endorsements from celebrity chefs, we have never been that successful,’ he says. ‘I want to make this into a successful business.’

The branding and packaging will roll out in the spring.