JAT rebrands reflecting meteoric rise and potential

JAT Holdings Managing Director Aelian Gunawardene unveiling the new logo at a ceremony on Tuesday 

- Pic by Daminda Harsha Perera

By Hiruni Dabarera

The official launch of JAT Holdings’ new brand logo and tagline, and the felicitation of the corporation’s outstanding employees and dealers were held on Tuesday reflecting upon its meteoric rise and potential as a global company.

The new logo was unveiled with the purpose of supporting the company’s long-term growth strategy and to appeal to new markets in broadening international reach. 

“Brand name is the life-blood of an organisation. We at JAT are dedicated to upkeep what to our brand name stands for,” declared the Managing Director at JAT Holdings Aelian Gunawardene. “Our goal is to elevate the core attributes of the JAT brand and to provide a platform for our customers and partners to capitalise on the scope and depth of our operations,” he elaborated. 

Started 23 years ago as a company that focused primarily on paint (wood coatings, paints, painting equipments and supplies), JAT has now expanded to other verticals namely furnishing and living. JAT Living provides an extensive selection of business process management, design, engineering and construction planning solutions while JAT Furnishing delivers innovative kitchen, home, office and furnishing products and accessories. The company believes their new logo to represent all these divisions. 

The ‘A+’ mark of excellence that has been incorporated to the company’s new identity is a symbol of JAT’s A+ rating in terms of team and quality. It stands for the company’s excellence achieved over the past few years with a 38% net profit growth and 18% revenue growth during 2014-2015. It has increased its portfolio within the past 12 years to include global brand leaders such as Sayerlack, Crown Paints, Permoglaze, Norton, Armstrong, Herman Miller and Alno. At present it dominates the wood care protection product industry with a market share of 75%. 

The new tagline ‘Transforming spaces’ which is an upgrade from its former ‘Get the right finish first’, denotes the company’s capability and commitment to improve its customer’s lives through space efficiency, productivity, ergonomic practicality and visual delight. 

“At present we hold distributorship in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Maldives in addition to Sri Lanka. We are currently ranked at number one in Bangladesh and Maldives and were named as the top 9th conglomerate in Sri Lanka last year.  JAT was the first company to introduce water-based lacquer to the local market and also our new initiative Master-Plaster is quite unique as it is a plaster that does not require sand or cement. Within the next years we intend to bring more innovations to cater to customers better,” Gunawardene told the Daily FT. 

JAT is hoping to expand to Seychelles next year and claims their vision is to make it to the top ten brands within the South Asia.  

The event also marked the successful felicitation of deserving distributors and work force. The awards presented were Appreciation Awards to distributors, Long Service Awards, Best JAT Tech team, Best Technical Executive medium and large scale for the duration of 2014-2015 and the best Area Manager.