Dormer Pramet

Brand Repositioning - Sequoia Level Engagement

The Project

Two brands. One company. Ten years of separate identities, separate cultures, and separate customer relationships, all needing to become one coherent whole.

Dormer and Pramet, both manufacturers of cutting tools and part of the global Sandvik Group, had operated under their own brand identities since merging a decade earlier. The time had come to complete what the merger had started: to bring both brands together under a single Dormer Pramet identity, retire the legacy names, and build something that could carry the combined company forward.

This wasn't just a design project. It was a strategic, cultural, and communications transformation, spanning a global organisation, multiple stakeholder groups, and every touchpoint the brand occupied.

The Ecosystem Challenge

The most complex brand challenges aren't visual. They're human.

Before a brand can project itself outward, it has to live authentically within the organisation it belongs to. A beautiful identity built on top of a disconnected team is just decoration. The real work, the work that makes a rebrand last, happens inside first.

Dormer Pramet had something valuable that many businesses underestimate: years of genuine customer relationships, hard-won expertise, and a culture that already knew how to deliver. Our job wasn't to invent a new brand from scratch. It was to find what was already true about this company, name it clearly, and build the identity and story that could carry it into the world.

Video production by Swhype

The Engagement

A 12-month, near full-time engagement. Palmer&Co embedded directly into the Dormer Pramet team - not as outside consultants handing over deliverables, but as an extension of the organisation working toward the same goals.

This is the Sequoia model in practice: specialists gathered around a business like friends around a campfire, each one working from the same strategic foundation, each one contributing to a system that's greater than the sum of its parts.

The Result

"It was a pleasure to work with Richard and Ruth on this important project for Dormer Pramet. This was a challenging global project with multiple considerations and stakeholders to manage. Their ability to create a strong brand strategy, and align the visual identity, tone of voice and our brand behaviours left us feeling we were in safe hands.

Richard and Ruth were very keen to equip the team internally with the ability to tell stories and encourage behaviours that would continue to bring the brand to life. The global launch internally and externally at the trade show was very well received and the supporting videos helping to bring this together were superb.

There was a huge amount of work involved from copywriting to video, website redevelopment and design during this project, which the Palmer&Co team delivered on time and to a high quality. The President, Senior management and our parent company Sandvik were all very happy with the work."

Amaya Albisu - Vice President Communications, Branding & Marketing, Dormer Pramet

The Approach

Root Work - Understanding the Ecosystem

We began where all lasting brand work begins: listening.

Through deep immersion with the global Dormer Pramet team, we mapped what the company was genuinely great at, how customers experienced and described the value they received, and what cultural behaviours had driven their most significant successes. This wasn't research at a distance, it was the kind of close, extended engagement that reveals the truth a brand audit alone can't uncover.

What we found became the foundation for everything that followed.

DNA - Building the Strategic Foundation

From that research, we built the brand strategy and framework that would guide every subsequent decision. Purpose, positioning, brand hierarchy, and the behavioural principles that would define how Dormer Pramet showed up, not just in external communications, but in how its people talked about what they did and why it mattered.

Storytelling was central to this work from the beginning. Not as a communications tactic, but as the primary tool for building internal alignment around the new brand direction. When people understand the story they're part of, they become advocates rather than just employees.

Expression - Bringing it to Life

With strategy established and internal alignment building, we moved to expression, the complete visual and verbal redesign of a global brand.

Working as an integrated extension of the Dormer Pramet team, Palmer&Co and our ecosystem of specialist partners delivered a comprehensive programme of work across every touchpoint:

Brand strategy & framework
Brand hierarchy
Brand identity design
Brand guidelines
Asset redesign across the full portfolio
Copywriting
Trade show design
Video production for internal and external campaigns
Website design
Packaging design
Template design

Activation - Launching the Ecosystem

The launch wasn't a single moment. It was a carefully sequenced activation, internal first, then external, designed to ensure the people inside the organisation believed in and understood the new brand before the world saw it.

Internal launch events, onboarding programmes, tone of voice workshops, and storytelling sessions gave the global team the language, the confidence, and the conviction to carry the brand forward themselves. The external launch at a major trade show, supported by the campaign videos, gave the new Dormer Pramet identity its most visible moment.

Presentations to the President and Senior Leadership team, and reporting to parent company Sandvik, ensured strategic alignment at every level of the organisation throughout.

What This Illustrates

The Dormer Pramet project is a demonstration of what becomes possible when brand strategy, internal culture, and external communications are built as a single connected system, not as separate workstreams handed off to separate teams.

A brand that lives authentically within an organisation doesn't need to be pushed outward. It grows there naturally, carried by the people who believe in it, strengthened by every customer interaction, and visible in every touchpoint without needing to be forced.

That's a keystone brand. And it's what Palmer&Co is built to create.

Services delivered on this project:

Strategy & Consulting • Design • Workshops • Video Production • Copywriting • Tone of voice workshop

Interested in a similar engagement? Talk to us about Sequoia →

Kind words from our ecosystem

“Richard is an inspiration to anyone with a dream, and the drive to realise it.”

Simon Devonshire
OBE, Entrepreneur, Investor, Non-Exec Director, Chair
"Richard's mastery of product and communication drove a wave of publicity that we could never have dreamed possible. Richard's technical ability is only surpassed by his understanding of marketing. I have never seen anyone possess such acumen in both realms before. This is a potent combination. As an entrepreneur, it is lethal (to the competition)!"

Phil Shettig
VP Product + Marketing, Vertical Supply Group (previously GM / Business unit Director Spyder Active Sports)
"Ruth was wholey responsible for creating D3O's brand strategy and executing the formation, communication and embodiment of the brand. It is difficult to find the most appropriate level of praise for her work and attitude; "Utter brilliance" is the closest I can get."

Tim Brown
Director and COO Rheon Labs (previously COO, D3O)
Janinie Boyer, Director, Beancount

"By the end of the workshop I had a clear vision about what my business brand statement is, what values and processes underlie it and how I can make it work for me. It was great to have such a creative and supportive space in which to really focus on my own branding as it's all too easy to overlook its strategic importance when you're busy!"
Kevin Nicholas Executive Partner BMNT

In my trade I come across many people who claim to be 'innovators', 'disruptors', 'design thinkers' and the like. A precious few of them are the real thing, and Richard is one of them. He is also great to work with and an all around good guy. I'd work with him again any time!
Michael Kleinwort Founder & CEO Kora Outdoor

“Ruth is a tireless self motivator whose experience, commitment, creativity and positivity helped kora come to life. She supported us through our startup phase, wearing multiple hats throughout - project management, copy-writing, web design, research, spreadsheet crunching, financial analysis, email marketing campaigns... She is painstaking in her approach to each task, and her dedication to ensuring that the task is completed on time and to the required quality is exemplary. Do not overlook her design skills either, as these are fantastic. She created kora’s logo - which is a thing of beauty and brains.”
During my time at Sessions. Rich Palmer was a driving force in D3O's product innovation and leadership. His visionary guidance fostered a culture of excellence, pushing boundaries and inspiring teams to achieve their best.

Cindi Bussenhart
Founder & CEO, MERGE4 B-CORP
Amaya Albisu - Vice President Communications, Branding & Marketing, Dormer Pramet

"It was a pleasure to work with Richard and Ruth on this important project for Dormer Pramet. This was a challenging Global project with multiple considerations and stakeholders to manage. Their ability to create a strong brand strategy, and align the visual identity, tone of voice and our brand behaviours left us feeling we were in safe hands.

Richard and Ruth were very keen to equip the team internally with the ability to tell stories and encourage behaviours that would continue to bring the brand to life. The global launch internally and externally at the trade-show was very well received and the supporting videos helping to bring this together were superb.

There was a huge amount of work involved from copywriting to video, website redevelopment and design during this project, which the Palmer&Co team delivered on time and to a high quality. The President, Senior management and our parent company Sandvik were all very happy with the work."