PwC under fire over ‘pointless' rebrand amid job cuts

Telegraph

30-04-2025

PwC has been accused of launching an 'utterly pointless' rebrand after laying off hundreds of staff.
The 'big four' accountant unveiled a new logo on Tuesday in what it described as its 'first global brand update in over a decade'.
The new logo uses exactly the same lettering as the old one, while switching out its formerly used multicoloured 'butterfly' crest for a simplified version consisting of two orange parallelograms.
However, critics hit out at the rebrand as 'utterly pointless' and a 'waste of money'.
PwC employees on social media platform Reddit questioned why the accountancy had decided to launch a rebrand at a time when profits were squeezed.
One said: 'I can't understand why so much money is being spent on rebranding. The 'old' logo was beautiful. Instead, savings are being made on staff.'
Another said the new logo 'perfectly represents all the business areas they've cut'.
It comes as PwC embarks on a cost-cutting drive which has included the sacking of hundreds of staff in recent months amid a slowdown in the consulting industry.
Last September, PwC launched its first formal round of lay-offs in its US business since 2009. The restructuring involved cutting 1,800 staff, equivalent to 2.5pc of its American workforce, according to The Wall Street Journal.
In the UK, the accountancy separately launched a round of 'silent lay-offs' last June, with staff who lost their jobs told not to tell colleagues about why they were leaving, the Financial Times reported. A spokesman told the FT at the time that PwC needed to 'keep the shape of our business under review to respond to changing client demand, attrition rates and new opportunities'.
In response to the slump, PwC also cut ties with 123 partners and halted its technology apprenticeship scheme as the remaining partners scrambled to keep their remuneration high following drops in their annual payouts for two years in a row.
Paul Burke, who runs an advertising agency and has worked on branding campaigns for Innocent Drinks and Leon, said of the rebrand: 'What's the point? It's just so lazy. Somebody's charged them money for not doing very much.'
PwC declined to disclose the cost of the recent rebrand. One marketing expert said the advertising agency fees alone could be in the hundreds of thousands of pounds.
Marketing experts said the wider costs of replacing everything from business cards to signs on top of skyscrapers could be millions.
A PwC spokesman said the 'new brand identity better reflects our work today'. The consulting giant added that its 'new look reflects how the firm already works: fast, sharp and focused on what's next.'
The rebrand also comes as PwC secures a sponsorship deal with Formula 1 in a partnership that will see it provide consulting services to the motor sports business.
The launch of PwC's new logo marks the first major shake-up of its branding since 2010, when the accounting giant changed its name from PricewaterhouseCoopers to PwC in a push to 'modernise' its image that took eight years from start to finish.