Sheffield-based William Whiteley & Sons completes fresh rebrand and new website

Whiteley has been handcrafting the finest quality scissors, blades, and shears since 1760, and has decided to update its brand as it enters its 265th year in operation, celebrating its continued innovation and presence in the world market.

With the aim of recognising its heritage as a legacy Sheffield brand, whilst unifying its brand identity and modernising itself, the firm has simplified its name from ‘William Whiteley & Sons’, to just ‘Whiteley’.

The rebranding includes a refreshed logo, which embodies the heritage of Whiteley, with the inclusion of ‘Sheffield, England’. A new brand icon encapsulates design elements from a pair of scissors created for Queen Victoria in 1838, representing the brand’s history of crafting bespoke scissors for iconic figures and organisations worldwide.

Complementing the rebranding to Whiteley, the Wilkinson brand, which merged with Whiteley in 1875, will now be known as ‘Wilkinson by Whiteley’, to further unify and simplify consumers’ understanding of the Whiteley brand.

Central to the rebrand is a new sharp and fresh multifunctional website, to create a seamless shopping experience for customers.

In celebration of the launch, Whiteley is once again collaborating with historic marking and traceability technology manufacturer Pryor, a fellow Sheffield business, to create 25 sets of special edition scissors.

Each pair of the scissors, which are 12” big bolt shears with blue handles and brush gold bolts, will be hand-stamped by Pryor, who Whiteley has been working with since the 1800s.

Mark White, managing director of Whiteley, said, “Whiteley has an incredible heritage, with a history of making high-quality pairs of scissors and shears dating all the way back to the 1700s."

“While Whiteley has been synonymous with handcrafting in Sheffield for the past 265 years, we knew it was time to modernise the brand, and create a new look that reflects the constant innovation we pride ourselves on.

“The updated branding represents our history, whilst also expressing a refreshed feel and name, which simplifies our brand for our customers.

“In line with the contemporary look, our new website offers a superior experience for our customers, with effortless navigation and easier checkout ensuring that buying from Whiteley is always seamless and stress-free,” he continued.