Hutchison Essar phases out Orange, BPL brand

Hutchison Essar has phased out its Orange brand, under which the telephony major offers its GSM services in Mumbai, and has announced the launch of a new logo.

The company is also planning to consolidate all its operations, including that of the recently acquired BPL Communications and BPL Mobile under the new brand.

The introduction of the updated logo, a new image style and graphics and colour palette, will give the brand a new look and feel, Hutchison Essar said in a release here today.

"Hutch has touched a chord with consumers in such a short-span of time and we do believe the time has come to refresh this brand and inculcate a new 'Hutch Spirit' which will make us more vibrant and promising for all," Hutchison Essar corporate vice-president group marketing Naveen Chopra said.

The new logo will have a new colour palette, with the existing orange tristars has been changed to bright pink. This tone of pink is incredibly vibrant, energetic and contemporary, it said.

The company was also planning to consolidate its the brands - BPL, Orange and Hutch - under the Hutch umbrella. This would help in providing a "more effective and customer-centric approach" and offer uniform rates and services across all its 13 circles in the country.

At present, the GSM-based mobile service provider operates its Mumbai circle under the Orange brand, which is owned by France Telecom, while the remaining 12 circles are operated under Hutch brand.

The company also pays a royalty to France Telecom for the use of Orange brand. Even though, the company has the right to use the brand name as long as its pays the royalty, Hutch believes that as the "phasing out is inevitable", this is the right time to do so.

When contacted a top company executive said while a change in name was one of the priorities, a deadline for the same was not yet finalised.

"We have the right to use the brand as long as we want and we intend to use it for some more time. The challenge would be to migrate seamlessly to the umbrella brand. We will do it sooner or later, but we cannot comment on how sooner or how later we will implement this," he said.

The Hong Kong-headquartered Hutchison Whampoa had held a majority stake in Mannesmann, a Germany-based service provider that was later acquired by France Telecom. This had resulted in France Telecom becoming the owners of the Orange brand.