JW Lees rebranded as 'the modern traditional brewer' after 18 months of listening

There was no brief at first: MD William Lees-Jones asked Squad to chat about the business and stimulate thinking, which grew into a new brand strategy, visual identity and pub experience for a company competing with younger craft rivals.

Squad spent 18 months interviewing staff from Saturday pub workers to senior management, researching competitors and speaking to customers and experts. The new identity draws on JW Lees' Victorian roots without nostalgia: a flexible system of bold colours and varied fonts gives each beer letterpress, engraved or hand-painted packaging, bound by the logo on top of each label and the brewery's address at the bottom. Pubs got signage, uniforms, metal pumps and menus while keeping individual identities.

JW Lees sales rose 1.4% in the year ending March 2018, and Manchester Craft Lager became one of its most popular beers. The work led to new sub-brands — its own lager, seasonal beers inspired by record sleeves, and The Boilerhouse microbrewery for experimental batches — plus internal training programmes and a 'Cosmic Brew' ale with Professor Brian Cox.

JW Lees has made beer in Manchester since 1828, but the craft boom cut both ways: consumers were more adventurous, yet illustrated newcomers like Beavertown made the established brewer look outdated — and pubs were closing at an average of 18 a week. MD William Lees-Jones approached Manchester agency Squad with no brief, first for conversations, then bringing the board to the agency's office for a day to think about where the brand was going.

Squad spent the next 18 months interviewing staff from Saturday pub workers to senior management, researching competitors and speaking to customers and experts. The result was a vision spanning JW Lees' managed pubs, tenanted pubs and free-trade business, positioned as 'the modern traditional brewer' — honouring heritage while striding forward, with the brewery put back at the heart of the business rather than run separately from the pubs.

The identity that followed replaced what creative partner David Barraclough called the shouty 'lager lout font' with a flexible Victorian-inspired system: each beer gets letterpress, engraved or hand-painted packaging, unified by the logo atop every label and the brewery's address at the bottom. The strategy spawned the company's own lager, seasonal beers inspired by record sleeves, The Boilerhouse microbrewery for experimental batches, and a 'Cosmic Brew' ale with physicist Professor Brian Cox, who hails from the same area.

Eighteen months of staff interviews gave a family-owned business a vision it authored, not one imposed.

'Modern traditional' resolved the craft-era dilemma: heritage as an asset rather than a costume.

Per-beer art styles with two fixed anchors gave the range a thread without uniformity.

Letting each pub translate the brand itself avoided the identikit roll-out regulars would resent.

Strategy before identity, and identity before roll-out: listening for 18 months let a 190-year-old family firm change without feeling robbed of its history.

The identity rolled out gradually from November 2017. By the year ending March 2018, JW Lees sales had grown 1.4% and Manchester Craft Lager was among its most popular beers; the clearer vision led to new internal training programmes, new product categories and a limited-edition Royal Wedding brew. Creative Review reported the story on 30 November 2018.