If you have landed on our website and this blog without knowing that we have a former identity (the construction company formerly known as…Raymond Brown) then you probably won’t have much interest in this first post. But, for those who are aware of our background and heritage, we wanted to make sure the correct information is out there so we all understand why we did what we did.

Our change of name follows the demerger of the Raymond Brown Group and sale of Raymond Brown Minerals and Recycling (RBMR) in August 2016. The new owners of RBMR own the Raymond Brown name and we were granted permission to use it under licence for a few years.

Although we may have had no choice in the matter, we quickly realised this fait-accompli presented a fantastic opportunity to create a new identity that would be a much better reflection of our values and the modern company we are today.

As it turns out, that was the easy bit. Coming up with and agreeing on a new name is a tricky business and it took a while for us to get to Knights Brown. Here’s how we did it.

We consciously chose to retain the name ‘Brown’ because it links directly to our heritage, history and reputation. Alongside that we also wanted a link back to our New Forest origins and the Knightwood Oak caught our attention, the largest and one of the oldest trees in the New Forest.

It was from this that the word ‘knights’ derived, which struck a chord with us. Knights were trusted and skilled, sworn to uphold values such as loyalty, courage and honour. These values resonated with us because of how we work together and like to do business. They relate to how we wish to be perceived by our customers and how we behave as employees.

And that is how Knights Brown emerged, once we got the words in the right order. A modern name to take us into the future with team spirit, professionalism and pride.

After that the fun really started, designing the new logo. Fortunately, we had some brilliant help from the team at Glow. Here is one of the leaflets they produced for us, which tells you more about the story behind the brand.