Name of a company! | Atkins what?

There are company names that say it all and others that are… more mysterious. The Press take advantage of the summer to tell the origin of these sometimes very well-known names.

The company’s most well-known brand combined with a word created from scratch to maintain a connection to Montreal and its roots. This is the simplest way to sum up the shift that has taken place at SNC-Lavalin, which has changed its name to AtkinsRéalis – an announcement that came in September 2023.

In practice, the process turned out to be much more methodical.

A little flashback is in order. The last 15 years have not been easy for the Quebec engineering giant. There were all the embezzlement cases, which forced it to rethink its governance, and a refocusing of its business strategy – which resulted, among other things, in abandoning the construction niche and fixed-price contracts because they were undermining its finances.

“The rebranding brought that whole chapter to a close,” Nicolas McDuff, Senior Vice President, Global Communications and Marketing, explained in an interview.

How did we arrive at the name AtkinsRéalis? It was quickly concluded that the “Atkins” brand – a British firm purchased for $3.6 billion in 2017 – was the group’s best-known brand internationally. While the SNC-Lavalin brand was widely used in Canada, this was less the case internationally, where the multinational generates more than 70% of its annual revenue.

But it was necessary to go further than simply opting for Atkins, McDuff said.

“We didn’t want to keep just that name because it didn’t represent all of our services,” he says.

From 2000 potential names to… two

This is where the hard work begins. The Quebec company studied names like “global” and “world.” The firm quickly realized that these were brands that were difficult to “protect” in terms of intellectual property.

“So we looked at another avenue, which was something completely new, to invent a word,” says Mr. McDuff. “I think it’s bold, you could say that. We wanted to connect our history as a Quebec company. How do we put all that into one word?”

That was easier said than done. More than 2,000 “candidate names” were considered, the vice president said. Over time, that list was whittled down to 300. About 15 names were shortlisted before two finalists were identified.

But why “Réalis”, with an acute accent? This is where the reference to Montreal comes in.

What was a finalist alongside “Réalis”? The mystery will remain, since the Quebec firm preferred not to lift the veil on this aspect of the process.

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A name change also means a new logo. The SNC-Lavalin brand hadn’t been refreshed in over two decades, so it was time for a change.

The company opted for graphic elements that allow the letters “a” and “r” to be seen, all with a reference to engineering.

“There are very specific points of contact between the blocks,” McDuff said. “You can see that it looks like an engineer’s work. The idea was to show the engineering work in the logo.”

It is not only among the public and investors that SNC-Lavalin’s shift to AtkinsRéalis has been noticed.

Earlier this year, the Quebec company scooped up a host of awards for brand transition and visual identity, notably at an awards ceremony held by Transform Magazinean international European publication specializing in brand redesign.