WMH to refresh Fortnum & Mason

Fortnum & Mason has revealed plans to relaunch its 300-year-old brand this winter, with Williams Murray Hamm working on the corporate identity, brand guidelines and own-label packaging.

According to WMH director Richard Murray, the consultancy is working with the retailer to ‘consolidate’ its brand values. ‘The charm of Fortnum & Mason is its continuity and sense of heritage. We’ve been helping them clarify what the brand is about and making sure it’s communicated through the identity and the packaging,’ he explains.

Fortnum & Mason marketing controller Yvonne Isherwood confirms that the Piccadilly institution is collaborating with WMH and is ‘looking’ at packaging design, but declined to set a date for the launch. ‘It will have a gradual roll- out,’ she says.

The revamped identity, which will feature across a range of own-brand products, including food, drink and toiletries, will continue to focus on Fortnum & Mason’s Georgian legacy.

‘When the brand came into existence, there was a very particular approach to arts and crafts. We’re trying to make those traditional values more relevant to today,’ Murray says.

WMH won the work in December, after a three-way credentials pitch. Consultancy director Garrick Hamm is leading the project.

Established in 1707, Fortnum & Mason became linked with the luxury trade in the 1780s when it became a purveyor of spices and condiments sourced by the East India Company.

It is now owned by the Weston family, which, through its Wittington Investments vehicle, counts furniture retailer Heal’s and the UK arm of the Build-a-Bear Workshop chain of stores among its interests.

It also has a majority shareholding in the Associated British Foods-owned clothing chain Primark.