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CORPORATE REBRANDING
Well-known Caltex brand being repositioned as Astron Energy
By our News Team | 2021
Start of mammoth rebranding operation that will take in hundreds of retail and commercial sites across Botswana and South Africa.
The Caltex fuel and service station brand has unveiled its new brand strategy as it rebrands to become known as Astron Energy.
This begins a process that will ultimately see more than 850 retail sites in South Africa and Botswana switching over to the new branding within the next few years. The rebranding will also apply to corporate offices, commercial sites, industrial facilities and port terminals.
The unveiling of the new logo and corporate colours, as well as the redesign of service station forecourts, is seen as an important step in the company’s ambition to become an even bigger player in the market. It is currently number two.
According to a media statement, the brand’s bold new colours were specifically chosen to allow Astron Energy to stand out in a largely undifferentiated market that tends to stick to the traditional colours usually associated with fuel brands.
Image courtesy of Astron Energy + Superunion Africa
“The rebrand is a milestone moment for us on our journey to reimagine and reinvent ourselves. We have been a trusted player in fuels for over a century,” said Astron Energy Interim CEO, Braam Smit.
“We are looking forward to stepping confidently into the future and welcoming all our customers to our exciting new-look forecourts and experiences.”
Rejuvenating the overall customer experience
The brand change will also see service stations place careful emphasis on the basics, including bathroom facilities and lighting, as part of rejuvenating the overall customer experience.
“A significant change to our motoring or fuel landscape comes around once every few decades and this is really something to be excited about as we look forward to the first forecourt rebrand in the new year,” General Manager for Marketing, Cambridge Mokanyane, said.
The name change and rebrand follows the 2018 change of ownership of Astron Energy and its exit from the Chevron group of companies. Since then, Astron Energy has been operating the Caltex brand under a licence agreement. The new corporate brand identity now sees all operations consolidated under a single, unifying brand.
Superunion Africa has been handed the challenge of looking after the repositioning and rebranding strategy.
“Identifying ‘stagnation’ as the brand’s enemy, we committed to imbuing all elements of the Astron Energy brand with a fresh, new energy aimed at inspiring and fuelling progress in our fast-changing world,” Superunion Africa explained in its own statement.
“Unifying around the idea of ‘New times, New energy,’ we envisaged a welcoming, genuine, and optimistic energy brand, endeavouring to simplify and streamline the lives of all their customers, be it a corporate CEO managing teams of vehicles across the country, or a mom dropping her kids off at school in the morning.”
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