Thirty-eight brand guides to industrial, energy, pharmaceutical and logistics companies.
Industrial and energy companies rarely sell to the public, but their names appear on plants, ships and trucks. These guides cover their marks and dated ownership changes.
How to use these guides
Each guide covers who owns the name today, where the products are made — by the maker’s own account and, where it differs, by other sources — and the brand’s visual identity. A company’s description of itself is attributed to the company, and where a business has closed we say so plainly. The table at the end gathers the essentials.
Pharmaceutical companies
Pfizer, Novartis, Roche, AstraZeneca, GSK and Sanofi.
- Pfizer — The New York company Charles Pfizer and Charles F. Erhart set up in Brooklyn in 1849, which in January 2021 replaced its pill-shaped logo with a two-tone blue double helix by the Brooklyn agency Team, set with Noto Sans.
- Novartis — The Basel company formed in 1996 when Ciba-Geigy and Sandoz merged, named from the Latin novae artes, which in December 2023 kept its logo but rebuilt its design system around biomorphic shapes and warmer colours.
- Roche — The Basel company Fritz Hoffmann-La Roche founded in 1896, still controlled by its founding families, whose logo carries the founder’s name, refreshed with Pentagram around a brighter Roche Blue and the Roche Sans and Roche Serif typefaces.
- AstraZeneca — The Anglo-Swedish company formed in April 1999 when Sweden’s Astra AB and Britain’s Zeneca Group merged, whose new logo joined the letters A and Z at the end of the name, now headquartered in Cambridge.
- GSK — The London company formed on 27 December 2000 by the merger of Glaxo Wellcome and SmithKline Beecham as GlaxoSmithKline, renamed GSK on 16 May 2022, whose 2022 identity by Wolff Olins set its orange logo inside a curved shape called the signal.
- Sanofi — The Paris company founded in 1973 as a subsidiary of Elf Aquitaine, renamed Sanofi-Aventis after the 2004 Aventis acquisition and Sanofi again in May 2011, whose February 2022 lowercase logo with two purple dots was designed with FutureBrand.
Japanese pharma
Takeda, Astellas, Daiichi Sankyo and Eisai.
- Takeda — The Osaka company that traces itself to Chobei Takeda’s 1781 drug-trading shop in Doshomachi, renamed Takeda Yakuhin Kogyo in 1943 and Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited in English in 2004, which in 2019 unified its logos on a stylised T with a script Takeda wordmark.
- Astellas — The Tokyo company formed on 1 April 2005 by the merger of Yamanouchi and Fujisawa, named from the Latin, Greek and English words for star, with a “Flying Star” mark that also joins the two old names.
- Daiichi Sankyo — The Tokyo company set up on 28 September 2005 as a joint holding company for Sankyo, founded in Yokohama in 1899 and named for its three backers, and Daiichi Pharmaceutical, founded in 1915, with a global slogan adopted in 2012.
- Eisai — The Tokyo company that grew from Toyoji Naito’s Sakuragaoka Laboratory (1936) and Nihon Eisai (1941), took its short katakana-and-roman name in 1955, streamlined its red-and-blue globe mark in 1967 and carries a separate hhc mark modelled on Florence Nightingale’s signature.
Postal and logistics
DHL, Deutsche Post, Royal Mail and Canada Post.
- DHL — The courier Adrian Dalsey, Larry Hillblom and Robert Lynn started in San Francisco in 1969, which Deutsche Post has owned outright since 2002, relaunched in April 2003 as a red DHL wordmark on post yellow, and whose name the group itself has carried since 2023.
- Deutsche Post — The German letter brand that grew out of the Deutsche Bundespost, became Deutsche Post AG in 1995 and listed in Frankfurt in 2000, and whose post horn and post yellow Strichpunkt refreshed in 2021; since September 2026 it names a subsidiary of DHL AG.
- Royal Mail — The British postal service that traces its history to 1516, whose pillar boxes have been painted red since 1874, whose cruciform logo took a Tudor crown in 2024, and which EP Group has owned since 2025 through International Distribution Services.
- Canada Post — The bilingual Canada Post / Postes Canada name, a postmark symbol on a blue field in red and blue, an identity programme by the Toronto firm Newton Frank Arthur, and a Crown corporation since 16 October 1981, successor to the Post Office Department.
Energy and industrial companies
TotalEnergies, Equinor, Petronas, Dow, Siemens and BASF.
- TotalEnergies — The Paris-area energy group founded in 1924 as the Compagnie française des pétroles, known as Total, then TotalFinaElf, Total again in 2003 and TotalEnergies from May 2021, when Carré Noir’s gradient symbol and rounded lower-case name replaced the capitals.
- Equinor — The Stavanger energy company founded in 1972 as Den norske stats oljeselskap, known as Statoil from 1973, briefly StatoilHydro after the 2007 Hydro merger, and renamed Equinor in May 2018, when its magenta star was redrawn in red.
- Petronas — Petroliam Nasional Berhad, the Kuala Lumpur oil and gas company incorporated in August 1974, whose emerald-green logo by Johan Ariff of Johan Design Associates joins an oil drop and the letter P, refreshed in 2013 and flattened in 2019.
- Dow — The company Herbert Henry Dow founded in Midland, Michigan, in 1897, whose diamond emblem dates from the late 1910s, which merged with DuPont as DowDuPont in 2017 and was spun off as Dow Inc. on 1 April 2019.
- Siemens — The Berlin telegraph workshop Werner von Siemens and Johann Georg Halske opened in 1847, merged into Siemens AG in 1966, whose petrol colour is shared with Siemens Healthineers and whose spin-offs include Infineon, Osram and Siemens Energy.
- BASF — The Badische Anilin- und Soda-Fabrik that Friedrich Engelhorn founded in Mannheim in 1865, whose initials gained two matching squares in a 2004 corporate design and whose English claim changed from “The Chemical Company” to “We create chemistry” in 2014–15.
Container shipping
Maersk and CMA CGM.
- Maersk — The Danish shipping group founded in Svendborg in April 1904 by Peter Mærsk Møller and A. P. Møller, its white seven-pointed star on pale blue, the 1973 redrawing by Acton Bjørn, a colour registered as a trademark in Denmark, and the 2019 move from Maersk Line to one Maersk name.
- CMA CGM — The line Jacques Saadé founded in Marseille in 1978 as Compagnie Maritime d’Affrètement, joined with the privatised Compagnie Générale Maritime from 1996, relaunched in June 2017 with an eighth logo by Brandimage in colours recalling the French flag, and run from a Zaha Hadid tower.
Mining and steel
Rio Tinto, BHP, Anglo American, ArcelorMittal, POSCO and Nippon Steel.
- Rio Tinto — The mining group registered in London in March 1873 to work the Río Tinto mines in Huelva, Spain, merged with Consolidated Zinc as RTZ and CRA in 1962, and renamed Rio Tinto plc and Rio Tinto Limited in 1997, with offices in London and Melbourne.
- BHP — The Melbourne-based miner incorporated as the Broken Hill Proprietary Company on 13 August 1885, renamed BHP Billiton after the June 2001 merger with Billiton, and returned to the BHP name in May 2017 with the “Think Big” campaign and a new logo.
- Anglo American — The mining company Ernest Oppenheimer incorporated in Johannesburg in 1917 with money raised in Britain and the United States, which moved its primary listing to London in 1999 and agreed in 2025 to combine with Teck as Anglo Teck.
- ArcelorMittal — The Luxembourg steel company formed when Arcelor, itself the 2002 union of Arbed, Aceralia and Usinor, accepted Mittal Steel’s offer in June 2006, which launched its brand in June 2007 and lent its name to the ArcelorMittal Orbit in London.
- POSCO — The Korean steelmaker created in 1968 as Pohang Iron and Steel Company with Park Tae-joon at its head, renamed POSCO on 15 March 2002, and reorganised under POSCO Holdings in March 2022, with a centred-S wordmark in POSCO Blue.
- Nippon Steel — The Tokyo steelmaker formed in 1970 when Yawata Iron & Steel and Fuji Iron & Steel merged, known as Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal from 2012, renamed Nippon Steel in April 2019 with a group brandmark, and owner of U.S. Steel since June 2025.
European industrials
thyssenkrupp, Saint-Gobain, Schneider Electric, ABB, Atlas Copco, Sandvik, Alfa Laval, Legrand, Air Liquide and Holcim.
- thyssenkrupp — Formed by the March 1999 merger of Thyssen and Krupp, rebranded in November 2015 by the agency Thjnk with its design unit Loved, which set the name in one lowercase word and placed the Thyssen arch inside the three Krupp rings; headquarters in the Essen quarter.
- Saint-Gobain — Founded in Paris in 1665 as the Manufacture royale de glaces de miroirs, named after a mirror works in the Picardy village of Saint-Gobain, merged with Pont-à-Mousson after 1968, and given a bridge-and-skyline logo by creative director Laurent Borderie in 2016.
- Schneider Electric — The French group that traces itself to the brothers Adolphe and Eugène Schneider at the Le Creusot ironworks in 1836, took the Schneider Electric name in 1999, and is based at Le Hive in Rueil-Malmaison near Paris.
- ABB — The Zurich-based technology group formed when Sweden’s ASEA (founded 1883 in Västerås) and Switzerland’s Brown, Boveri & Cie (founded 1891 in Baden) announced their merger in August 1987 and began operating as ASEA Brown Boveri in January 1988.
- Atlas Copco — Founded as AB Atlas in Stockholm on 21 February 1873, merged into AB Atlas Diesel in 1917, renamed Atlas Copco AB in 1956 after its Belgian subsidiary Compagnie Pneumatique Commerciale, spun off Epiroc in 2018 and added an Atlas Copco Group logo in 2023.
- Sandvik — Göran Fredrik Göransson’s Bessemer steelworks founded in 1862 at what became Sandviken, reorganised as Sandvikens Jernverks AB in 1868, renamed Sandvik AB in 1972, spun off Alleima in 2022 and given a new logotype inspired by its 1962 logo in 2023.
- Alfa Laval — The Swedish company Gustaf de Laval and Oscar Lamm formed as AB Separator in Stockholm in 1883 to sell cream separators, renamed Alfa-Laval AB in 1963 after its Alfa discs and its founder, owned by Tetra Pak from 1991, relisted in 2002 and based in Lund.
- Legrand — The Limoges group that began in 1865 as a porcelain manufacture near the Vienne, took the name of Frédéric Legrand after his 1904 purchase, turned to switches with Jean Mondot in 1919 and to electrical equipment only after a 1949 fire, still on its original site.
- Air Liquide — The Paris industrial-gases group set up in November 1902 by Paul Delorme to work Georges Claude’s air-liquefaction process, listed in Paris in 1913, and given a new logo in January 2017 that swapped its AL monogram for a sign called the “Alpha”.
- Holcim — The cement company founded in Holderbank, Aargau, in 1912, renamed Holcim (Holderbank plus ciment) in 2001, merged with Lafarge as LafargeHolcim in July 2015, renamed Holcim in 2021 with a white H logo, and separated from Amrize in June 2025; based in Zug.
At a glance: founding, owner and base
Taken from each guide’s fact panel, as of October 2026. Ownership changes; follow the link for sources and detail.
| Brand | Founded | Owner | Base |
|---|---|---|---|
| ABB | ASEA founded: Västerås (1883) | BBC founded: Baden | Zurich |
| Air Liquide | Paris (1902) | Founders: Georges Claude and Paul Delorme | New logo: The “Alpha” |
| Alfa Laval | AB Separator, Stockholm (1883) | Founders: Gustaf de Laval and Oscar Lamm | Lund, Sweden |
| Anglo American | Johannesburg (1917) | Anglo American plc, London | Agreed merger: Anglo Teck, with Teck Resources |
| ArcelorMittal | Arcelor formed: Arbed, Aceralia, Usinor (2002) | Merger agreed: Arcelor and Mittal Steel | Luxembourg City |
| Astellas | Tokyo, Japan (2005) | Astellas Pharma Inc., Nihonbashi, Chuo, Tokyo | Today: Astellas Pharma Inc., Nihonbashi, Chuo, Tokyo |
| AstraZeneca | London (merger completed) (1999) | From: Astra AB and Zeneca Group | Discovery Centre, Cambridge |
| Atlas Copco | Founded as AB Atlas: Stockholm (1873) | Renamed Atlas Copco AB: Copco = Compagnie Pneumatique Commerciale | Atlas Copco Group logo: Umbrella identity |
| BASF | Mannheim, Baden (1865) | Headquartered in Ludwigshafen | Today: Headquartered in Ludwigshafen |
| BHP | Incorporated: Broken Hill Proprietary (1885) | Merged: BHP Billiton | Melbourne |
| Canada Post | Crown corporation: Canada (1981) | Federal Crown corporation; owns Purolator | Today: Federal Crown corporation; owns Purolator |
| CMA CGM | Marseille, France (1978) | CMA CGM Group, Marseille; led by Rodolphe Saadé since 2017 | Today: CMA CGM Group, Marseille; led by Rodolphe Saadé since 2017 |
| Daiichi Sankyo | Tokyo, Japan (2005) | Daiichi Sankyo Company, Limited, Nihonbashi, Chuo, Tokyo | Today: Daiichi Sankyo Company, Limited, Nihonbashi, Chuo, Tokyo |
| Deutsche Post | Became Deutsche Post AG: From Deutsche Bundespost Postdienst (1995) | Subsidiary of DHL AG, Bonn (since 2026) | Today: Subsidiary of DHL AG, Bonn (since 2026) |
| DHL | San Francisco (1969) | Brand of DHL Group, Bonn (owned by Deutsche Post since 2002) | Today: Brand of DHL Group, Bonn (owned by Deutsche Post since 2002) |
| Dow | Midland, Michigan (1897) | Dow Inc. since 1 April 2019 | Today: Dow Inc. since 1 April 2019 |
| Eisai | Roots: Sakuragaoka Laboratory, Tokyo (1936) | Predecessor: Nihon Eisai Co., Ltd., Saitama | Logomark streamlined: Katakana dropped, rounder globe |
| Equinor | Norway (1972) | Former names: Statoil, StatoilHydro | Stavanger |
| GSK | London (merger) (27 December 2000) | GSK plc, headquartered in London | Today: GSK plc, headquartered in London |
| Holcim | Holderbank, Aargau (1912) | Renamed Holcim: From Holderbank | Zug |
| Legrand | Porcelain works: Limoges (1865) | Bought by: Frédéric Legrand, with partners | Limoges |
| Maersk | Svendborg, Denmark (1904) | A.P. Moller – Maersk, one Maersk brand since 2019 | Today: A.P. Moller – Maersk, one Maersk brand since 2019 |
| Nippon Steel | Yawata + Fuji merger (1970) | Merged with: Sumitomo Metal Industries | Marunouchi, Tokyo |
| Novartis | Basel, Switzerland (1996) | From: Ciba-Geigy and Sandoz | Design refresh: Logo kept, new system |
| Petronas | Incorporated: Malaysia (1974) | Full name: Petroliam Nasional Berhad | Petronas Twin Towers, Kuala Lumpur |
| Pfizer | Williamsburg, Brooklyn, New York (1849) | Founders: Charles Pfizer and Charles F. Erhart | The Spiral, Hudson Yards, New York |
| POSCO | Pohang, Korea (1968) | Original name: Pohang Iron and Steel Company | Holding company: POSCO Holdings |
| Rio Tinto | Registered: London (1873) | Named after: Río Tinto, Huelva | London and Melbourne |
| Roche | Basel, Switzerland (1896) | Founder: Fritz Hoffmann-La Roche | Roche Tower (Bau 1), Herzog & de Meuron |
| Royal Mail | Traced to: England (1516) | Owned by EP Group via IDS (since 2025) | Today: Owned by EP Group via IDS (since 2025) |
| Saint-Gobain | Manufacture royale: Paris (1665) | Named after: Saint-Gobain, Picardy | Bridge and skyline logo: Laurent Borderie |
| Sandvik | Sandviken, Sweden (1862) | Founder: Göran Fredrik Göransson | Alleima spun off: Nasdaq Stockholm |
| Sanofi | France (15 February 1973) | Origin: Subsidiary of Elf Aquitaine | Logo: FutureBrand |
| Schneider Electric | Ironworks taken over: Le Creusot (1836) | Renamed: Schneider Electric | Rueil-Malmaison |
| Siemens | Berlin (1847) | Siemens AG, formed by merger in 1966 | Today: Siemens AG, formed by merger in 1966 |
| Takeda | Chobei Takeda, Doshomachi, Osaka (1781) | Renamed: Takeda Yakuhin Kogyo | Logo: Stylised T with script Takeda, unified |
| thyssenkrupp | Krupp cast steel works: Essen (1811) | Thyssen & Co.: Mülheim an der Ruhr | One-word lowercase name: Thjnk and Loved |
| TotalEnergies | France (1924) | First name: Compagnie française des pétroles | 2021 identity: Carré Noir (Publicis) |
See also all collections.