W1M CEO: I didn’t want to be mocked like Abrdn in our rebrand
The CEO of W1M, formerly Waverton Investment Management, has said he was conscious of other failed rebrands like Abrdn while selecting the firm’s new name.
Waverton’s merger with London & Capital last year left CEO Guy McGlashan searching for a name that could unite both firms without excluding either.
Eventually it landed on W1M, the postcode of the first London & Capital office and a similar name to the acronym of WIM for Waverton Investment Management.
When asked how the firm had avoided having to roll back the rebrand like Abrdn, McGlashan told City PM: “You clearly want to come up with a name that is not going to be mocked roundly.”
When Standard Life and Aberdeen Asset Management merged in 2017, the company was dubbed ‘Staberdeen‘ by some in the City.
As a response, the firm adopted the new name Abrdn in 2021, but faced widespread mockery across the media for its moniker.
The firm eventually announced last month that it would be retiring the disemvowelled name, with CEO Jason Windsor stating that it had become a “distraction”.
Others in the financial sector, including Brooks Macdonald, have quickly walked back their rebrands within months of rolling them out.
McGlashan was eager to avoid this with W1M: “I’m conscious that there have been a few instances where you might have said there was a bit of a misstep on the rebrand.”
However, beyond being mocked by the media, the CEO was also keen to make sure clients were happy with the rebrand and understood what the firm was still offering.
“Ultimately, a name is a name,” he concluded.
The merger between the two firms has left W1M as one of the largest wealth managers in the country, with combined assets of over £21bn.
After the merger with London & Capital, McGlashan said he was “keeping an eye out” for any other opportunities to buy that might fit with the company, but was not “trawling the market”.
“We’ve got a very clear idea of who our target market is, and it’s high net worth and ultra high net worth clients,” he added. “That’s who we’re going after.”