150 years of manufacturing. A brand that finally looked the part.
Stell had been making cardboard tubes in Yorkshire for a century and a half. The reputation was earned, the quality was real, but the brand had fallen well behind the business it represented.
“The Other Person brought real insight into the business and challenged our thinking.”
The challenge
Stell wasn't trying to reinvent itself. It was a business that had evolved significantly and needed a brand that properly represented where it had arrived: one that reflected its scale, professionalism and long-term ambition.
Having worked with Stell for more than twenty years, including a previous rebrand in 2002, we were trusted to lead the next stage of that evolution.
The thinking
We spent real time inside the business: visiting the factory, talking to the team, and understanding how the company operated day-to-day.
The more time we spent there, the clearer a parallel became: the German Mittelstand model. Independent manufacturers are defined by quality, resilience, long-term thinking and strong regional roots.
That became the foundation for the repositioning: shifting the focus away from what Stell produced and towards what made the company genuinely valuable: reliability, engineering quality and trust built over generations.
The identity drew directly from the manufacturing process itself: a circular cut-out device inspired by the product, supported by bold typography and a more confident visual system. Built to feel engineered. Built to last.
We carried the same thinking into the digital experience, shaping the website direction around the principles of the factory floor: structured, purposeful and efficient.
The result
Repositioned as a modern manufacturer with deep roots.
The new identity gave Stell a stronger, more confident market presence, grounded in heritage, built for the long term. The visual system rolled out across the wider business, including the launch of Encircle Packaging and a 150th anniversary communications programme.
To mark the milestone, we collaborated with Timothy Taylor's Brewery on a limited-edition Tube Maker beer, a nod to Stell's reputation as the tube-makers' tube maker. The kind of detail that only works when the brand has the character to carry it.
The business now looked like what it already was.
The Other Person brought real insight into the business, challenged our thinking in the right areas, and delivered a genuinely personal service throughout. The new brand is distinctive, original and genuinely differentiates us in our markets.Sam Stell, Director
Stell Cardboard Tubes & Cores
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