OREANDA-NEWS. November 11, 2008. Sovcomflot Group – Russia’s largest shipowner and one of the leading international tanker companies has begun to introduce its new unified corporate identity and style. The new corporate style, aimed at the creation of a modern, unified and integrated brand for all the Group’s subsidiaries, reflects the changes which have occurred within the holding company and all its subsidiaries during the last several years.

One of the reasons for developing a new unified corporate style for the Group was that the old logo designed in 1989, by the Mortekhinformreklama Agency, no longer corresponds to the image of the modern, dynamic company that is Sovcomflot.

Consequently, in March 2008, Sovcomflot commenced a tender to invite Russian and international design agencies to develop a new corporate identity and style. The progressive graphical images and improved range of colours offered by a Swedish design agency, Lighthouse Design (designer – Peter Mild), were selected for the new visual concept.

The new logotype acknowledges the traditions and history of each company in the Group, their customer service commitment, innovation and technological approach, as well as reliability, dynamism and progressive development.

According to Nikolai Kolesnikov, Sovcomflot Executive Vice-President, Chief Strategy and Financial Officer, the new visual concept is a response to the market demands both in Russia and abroad, to become a more transparent Group for its customers and a reliable investment for the future. “While developing the new style we sought a solution for a more vivid and consolidated positioning of the Group in the market, to make our brand more recognizable and to identify the Group as one of the world’s leaders in its industry”, he says. This is reflected in the new group straplines supporting the brand: “Sovremenny kommerchesky flot - Modern Commercial Fleet” in the Russian version and “Seaborne Energy Solutions” in the English version, likewise the company’s new website – www.scf-group.ru .

The changes impact the vessels’ colour scheme and use colours that promote better environmental and navigational safety for hydrocarbons transportation. New ships will be painted in the new colours immediately, while the repainting of existing vessels will be performed during their next scheduled dry-docking and repairs.

The Group’s representatives underline that the change of logotype and the introduction of new corporate style is one of the aspects of the Group’s renewal, together with significant investments by the Group in innovative technologies, as well as providing a broader spectrum and improved quality of services – not only in the transportation of hydrocarbons, but also in the trans-shipment of crude oil via Floating Storage and Offloading (FSO) facilities, in the technical support offered to terminals, in developing effective schemes for energy transportation and the servicing of oil and gas production projects. In turn, the integration of such major subsidiaries as Novoship, Rosnefteflot, Marpetrol S.A. (Spain) in the structure of the Sovcomflot Group facilitated the provision of a broader scale of operations in the market, to expand the geography of trade and to provide additional possibilities to serve customers.