Services · Corporate and group branding
Corporate and holding company branding in Dubai.
A holding company rarely has only one brand to look after. There is the parent name, the companies under it, sometimes product brands and stores, and a website, a profile and a building for each. Abcon Branding designs corporate identities for holding companies and business groups in the UAE, and works out how the parent and its companies relate before any logo is drawn. Our portfolio includes Trus Holding and the wider Trus family of brands, Bettergrow Holding and its food businesses, company profiles and group websites.
- 1997Abcon Group began
- 300+People across Abcon Group
- UAE & OmanWhere the group works
What corporate and holding company branding covers
A group brand is read by very different people: partners and banks, staff in each company, suppliers, and customers who may only know one of the businesses. Most projects draw on some of these:
- Group and portfolio mapping
- a written picture of the parent, each company, its products or stores, who each one serves and what the group plans to add, so the structure is designed for where the group is going.
- Brand architecture
- how the parent and its companies relate: one master brand, companies endorsed by the parent, or separate brands with names of their own. The choice is made with leadership before design starts.
- Naming system
- rules for company names, descriptors and product names, so a new business can be named in a way that shows where it belongs and says plainly what it does.
- Parent identity
- the holding company’s own emblem, wordmark and palette, built for the places a parent brand appears: the head office, the company profile, letterheads and the line that endorses each company.
- Company identities
- logos and palettes for each operating company that are clearly related or clearly separate, depending on the architecture. Trusline Distribution and Trusworld each have a blue emblem of their own.
- Endorsement and lockup rules
- how and where the parent name appears beside a company logo, on stationery, signs, vehicles and websites, and when it is left out.
- Stationery and staff identity
- business cards, letterheads, envelopes, staff cards and lanyards, as in the Trusline Distribution and Truslink Stores presentations.
- Company profiles and catalogues
- printed and digital profiles that introduce the group, its mission and vision, then give each business or brand its own section, like the Trusbrands catalogue and the 7 Falcons profile.
- Group and company websites
- a parent website that explains how the businesses connect, and sites for the companies themselves. Bettergrow Holding’s group website and Bettergrow’s trade website are an example of the two side by side.
- Buildings, signage and vehicles
- head office and branch signs, reception walls, container and truck graphics, produced through Abcon Group’s signage and printing companies where needed.
When a group needs to work on its brand
The group has grown faster than its brand.
Companies were set up or bought one at a time, each with its own logo. Customers, banks and new staff cannot tell which businesses belong together.
A holding company is being formed.
The parent needs a name, an identity and a story before the first announcement, and the existing companies need to know how they will appear beside it.
Each company describes the group differently.
Profiles, websites and proposals introduce the same group in different words and with different logos. One structure and one agreed story put that right.
A new company or division is about to launch.
Without rules, every launch starts a new design. An agreed architecture tells you whether the new business takes the group name, an endorsement or a name of its own.
The parent and a company share a name.
When a group and one of its companies carry the same name, as Bettergrow Holding and Bettergrow do, people need to be able to tell which one they are dealing with.
Partners want to see the whole group.
Suppliers, large clients and new partners often want one place that shows every business, the leadership and what the group can do. That usually means a group website and a profile.
How we work on corporate and group branding
Every project follows the same four stages. This is what they mean here:
- 01
Diagnose
We map the group as it is: the companies and what each one does, their customers, their names and how the group introduces itself today. We collect the current logos, profiles, websites and photographs of signs and vehicles, and talk to the people who will use the system, from leadership to the teams who order business cards.
- 02
Architect
We recommend the architecture and agree it with leadership before design begins: which names carry the group, which companies are endorsed and which stand alone. Then we design the parent identity and the company identities together and review them as a family, on stationery, signage and the website, so the relationships are visible before anything is approved.
- 03
Deploy
We prepare logo files, lockups, guidelines and templates for every company, and plan the change company by company. Abcon Group includes Abjar Signboard Works, German Printing Press and its own advertising companies, so signs, print and launch material can be produced within the group, or we prepare files to your suppliers’ specifications.
- 04
Compound
When the group adds a company, a product line or a new market, it follows the architecture already in place. We review new names and logos against it, keep the group website and profile current, and update the rules when the structure of the business changes.
Read more about our process.
Holding company and corporate brands in our portfolio
These come from original project presentations and website captures in our portfolio: a holding company and the wider Trus family of brands, a food group and its supply brand, company profiles and group websites. The building, vehicle and stationery images are design mockups from those presentations, and the websites are captures that may have changed since. They show the brand system, not business results.
- Trus Holding: the gold emblem and stacked white name on a curved glass building.
- Trusline Distribution: a blue parallel-line emblem on business cards, kept distinct from the rest of the Trus family.
- Trusworld: a circular blue emblem and wordmark on a reception wall, the same mark used on containers, a truck and cartons.
- Truslink Stores: a wordmark whose L becomes a shopping cart, drawn from the letter, a cart and the logo of a sister company.
- Trusbrands: a catalogue spread that introduces the brands in the range after the company’s own story.
- Bettergrow Holding: a group website that explains manufacturing, trading and distribution, retail and consumer brands as one ecosystem.
- Bettergrow: the group’s food-supply brand on a delivery truck, shown at street scale.
- 7 Falcons Investment & Developments: a navy-and-gold company profile with a contents page that sets the route through the business.
- Akmal Group: an automotive-services website whose navigation carries the group identity.
- Al Ijaza: a website that tells a Jumeirah cafeteria’s story from 1990, with its menu, collaborations and press.
- Abjar Advertising: the website for one of the Abcon Group companies, opening on illustrated creative tools.
- German Printing Press: the website for another Abcon Group company, moving from its brand message to its packaging work.
Decisions behind the work
See how an idea carries into the design. These examples draw on the original project presentations.
How does a holding company get a mark of its own?
The Trus Holding construction board brings together a lower-case t, an upper-case H and a reference to sharing hands.
Those ideas become one circular gold emblem beside the full company name. Deep navy, beige and white then carry it to a building frontage and a container truck.
Read the Trus Holding case study
How does one company in a family keep its own identity?
The Trusline Distribution brief asks for a symbol that stays distinct from the wider Trus family of brands. The construction board sets the proportions of its parallel-line emblem.
Blue parallel strokes around a lighter curved accent give the company its own mark, and the same lockup carries to business cards, a staff card and building signage.
Read the Trusline Distribution case studyWhat shapes the cost of corporate and group branding
We quote every project after a first conversation, so the proposal matches what the business needs. These are the things that move the cost and the timeline most:
- Number of companies: a parent identity on its own is a smaller job than a parent with several companies, each needing a logo, lockups and stationery.
- Architecture decisions: if the relationship between the companies is unsettled, mapping, options and leadership reviews come before design and add to the scope.
- New names: naming a holding company or a new subsidiary adds creative work and screening. Legal and trade licence checks are arranged with your own advisers.
- Applications per company: stationery, staff cards, profiles, signs, vehicles and uniforms are multiplied by the number of companies that need them.
- Websites: a group website, separate company websites or both, and whether they share one design system and one content plan.
- Content: company profiles, mission and vision statements and leadership introductions need writing or editing, and translation where the material is bilingual.
- Rollout and production: signage, vehicle graphics and print across several sites are produced and quoted separately from the design fee.
Our guide to what branding costs in Dubai explains how to compare quotes.
Questions and answers
Do you work with holding companies and business groups?
Yes. Our portfolio includes Trus Holding and the wider Trus family of brands, from Trusline Distribution and Truslink Stores to Trusworld and the Trusbrands catalogue, and the group website for Bettergrow Holding. Al Shirawi, Bronet Group, Pasons Group and Talal Group of Companies are among the clients shown on our About page.
Should every company in our group use the parent logo?
Not necessarily. Some groups are best served by one master brand, some by companies that carry a small endorsement from the parent, and some by separate brands. It depends on whether the companies share customers, whether the parent’s name helps them win work and what the group plans next. We compare the options with you before designing anything. Our brand architecture page explains the choices in more detail.
How do you keep a family of company brands related but distinct?
We decide what the companies share and what each one owns. In the Trus presentations the companies share the Trus name, while Trus Holding uses a gold emblem on deep navy, Trusline Distribution a blue parallel-line emblem and Trusworld a circular blue emblem. The Trusline Distribution brief asks for its symbol to stay distinct from the wider Trus family of brands.
Can you design a holding company identity from the start?
Yes. The Trus Holding presentation shows how: a construction board that brings a lower-case t, an upper-case H and a reference to sharing hands into one circular emblem, a palette of deep navy, beige, warm white and cool grey, then the identity on a building frontage and a container truck.
Can you build a group website that introduces all our companies?
Yes. Bettergrow Holding’s website opens on “Growing excellence from source to shelf.”, then steps through manufacturing, trading and distribution, retail and consumer brands before introducing the group’s brands, Bettergrow, Warmleys, Tajriba and Tayn, with its capabilities and leadership. Our website design page explains how we plan and build a site.
Do the group website and the company websites need the same design?
They should look related, but they do different jobs. A group site explains the whole business to partners; a company site has to help its own customers act. Bettergrow’s trade website leads with the truck and the warehouse, seven product categories and a quote button, while the Bettergrow Holding site explains the group behind it.
Can you write and design our company profile?
Yes. We plan the order of the profile, help shape the wording and design it. The 7 Falcons Investment & Developments profile moves from a contents page through vision and values to services, and the Trusbrands catalogue opens with About Us, mission and vision before giving each brand its own spread. You supply and approve the facts.
How do we move existing companies to a new structure without confusing customers?
We plan the change in stages. Usually the parent identity and the group website come first, then each company’s stationery, signs and vehicles as they are reprinted or replaced. Where a company is already well known, we may keep its name and add an endorsement rather than rename it. Our rebranding page explains how we decide what to keep.
Can Abcon Group produce our signage and print?
Yes. Abcon Group began in 1997, works across the UAE and Oman, and includes Abjar Signboard Works and German Printing Press, so head office signs, branch fascias, profiles and stationery can be produced within the group. If you already have suppliers, we prepare files to their specifications.
How long does a corporate branding project take?
It depends on the number of companies, whether naming or architecture decisions are needed and how many people have to approve them. We agree the timeline with you after a first diagnostic conversation, before any work begins, and set it out in the proposal.
What should we share before a corporate or group branding project?
Send a list or chart of the companies in the group, what each one does and who it serves, with any planned launches or acquisitions. Share the current logos, profiles, websites and photographs of signs and vehicles, and tell us who will approve the work. Note any legal or licensing limits on names that you already know about.
Preparing the first conversation? Build a brand project brief around your business challenge, audience and priorities.
