What’s in a name? A €16m price tag in the case of eircom, which has begun its complete rebrand as ‘eir’. The latest appellation in a series of handles for eircom over the years isn’t a radical nominal departure but is nevertheless being heralded by the company with a series of events across the country.

Unveiling the brand at the national launch today, eir CEO Richard Moat maintained that the company’s new identity is dynamic and modern.

“It reflects our real ambition to become just that, a dynamic and progressive Irish organisation providing the high quality infrastructure and services the country needs and deserves.

“We are proud of our history and our origins, but the time is right to modernise. Changing our brand is part of that evolution.”

Broadband

The freshly minted eir also used the brand unveiling to push the company’s broadband service. According to Moat, eir current offers the fastest broadband in Ireland, with speeds of up to 1,000Mb per second, via a new service called ‘eir Fibre Extreme’. The service is initially available in 15 areas around Ireland.

In Association with

He added: “With 1,000Mb per second broadband, we are making a bold statement about our ambition – not just in the sector but as one of Ireland’s largest companies that has touch points in every community.”

Other improvements promised by eir over the coming weeks include the introduction of a 24/7 broadband and TV technical support service.

eir CEO Richard Moat, pictured with eir staff at the rebrand launch

The change to eir will not impact Meteor, which will remain as a standalone brand within the eir group. The consumer and business divisions will operate under the new eir brand, respectively, while the wholesale and network business units will operate separately under ‘Open eir’.

The e-suite of products, including eMobile, eVision and eFibre, has been replaced by eir Mobile, eir Vision and eir Fibre respectively.

eir says that the rebrand cost €16m, on which more than 100 agencies worked at various stages.

New uniforms for eir staff are being introduced, while the 63 eir stores will around the country will also be redesigned.

To reinforce the brand image, eir said that it will run 6,000 TV ads, 4,500 radio ads and use 2,100 outdoor posters.

eircom’s full year revenue for the year to June 2015 of €1,265m was down 1% year-on-year but the company said that turnover in Q4 advanced by 5%, the first annual increase in seven years.

Full-year operating costs were reduced by 7% to €512m. This helped push up EBITDA by 3% to €481m. In the fixed-line segment, revenues in Q4 were up 5% at €250m. For the full year, there was a 2% decrease to €959m.