IDENTITY PARADE National Welsh was the only ex-National Bus Company subsidiary to go bust. Creative agency The MHD Partnership imagines a livery it might have been given had it still been thriving today. A NATIONAL TREASURE

ational Welsh was the headline management buyout of NBC’s Cheltenham & give the look casualty of the upheavals of Gloucester company, which branded it once of a folded nearly 30 years ago when bus again as Red & White. ribbon, N services outside London were Administrative receivers were called in on giving what deregulated and the National Bus Company’s 3 January 1992. Red & White, Bus is a stark subsidiaries were privatised by being sold and South Transport-owned Brewers shape more in 60 separate lots between July 1986 and registered replacements for most National fluidity. The March 1988. Welsh routes, while a new Rhondda Buses typeface NBC had created the company in 1978 acquired Porth depot with an unusual share was chosen when it merged Western Welsh and Red & structure that eventually saw Arriva, First and specifically White into a single business with depots Stagecoach all with a stake in the business. because stretching across the English border into the When imagining how to reinvent the its mix of Forest of Dean. National Welsh brand had it survived into rounded The management team saw off two rival the second half of the 2010s, The MHD and sharp bids to acquire the business in May 1987 for Partnership says it approached the challenge corners £2.6million, which was £400,000 more than with caution and due reverence. works in the net value of its assets, and continued with ‘Rebranding a national company is quite harmony an aggressive expansion campaign that saw a challenge and one that required a design with the a large fleet of Bustler-branded minibuses to be bold, simple and intrinsically Welsh,’ logo, while introduced on high-frequency routes within it says. ‘Our original design scribblings took also being and beyond its operating area. inspiration from the dragon but we felt that easily It acquired the council-owned Inter-Valley tampering with, or updating, such a well- readable and Link and Taff Ely undertakings in the known national treasure may cause negative user-friendly. valleys and contributed towards the demise feeling towards the brand. ‘We have naturally gone with the red, white of their equivalent in Merthyr Tydfil, but It decided that a strong identity device and green national colours, which used a series of factors — among them the high would act as the basis for this new livery, so correctly (dominant use of red rather than an cost of maintaining some of its less reliable it worked the ‘N’ and ‘W’ of National Welsh equal balance of three colours) automatically minibuses — caused it to run into financial together to form a cohesive framing. ‘We did, say Welsh. Getting it slightly wrong can end difficulties, selling the eastern part of the however, soften them by rounding some up looking more Roma than Rhondda, so business in 1990 to Western Travel, the corners and using a little shadow rendering to finding the balance in tone was paramount. ‘The patriotic strapline supports the national brand and, more subtly, the words “through and through” are a reinforcement of this Celtic patriotism. ‘Overall, both the identity and livery are a great representation of the company’s Welsh heritage and would quite easily provide that smooth transition into elements of the marketing mix. The work delivers branding that would make National Welsh not only a highly recognisable company, but one that could proudly stand tall against its competition.’ Incidentally, MHD says the WeAreWelsh domain name is currently available. Surely there must be some patriotic companies who could benefit from such a website address. ■ The privatised National Welsh company’s livery on DS497 (A37 XBO), an East Lancs-bodied ■ www.mhdpartnership.co.uk Dennis Lancet acquired with the Taff Ely undertaking. OMNIBUS SOCIETY / ROY MARSHALL

56 www.busesmag.com January 2016