Arthur Hall, Senior Reporter

This brand will fade from company buildings and products and will be replaced with LIME.

Cable and Wireless (C&W) has announced a change of identity, all part of its three-year plan to transform into the region's leading provider of a full suite of telecoms services including landline, Internet, mobile phones and entertainment.

In fact, to redefine and reframe itself, the company has changed its name from Cable and Wireless Caribbean to LIME Caribbean, effective last Friday.

Not only will its products be rebranded as LIME - for example, in Jamaica, the name bmobile is being retired - but the various country operations, all 13 of them, will be known by the one name: LIME Caribbean.

Delisting

The process, which will likely be wrapped up within 18 months, requires the delisting of country operations whose stock trade on regional exchanges.

In Jamaica, Cable and Wireless Jamaica Limited will be delisted from the Jamaica Stock Exchange (JSE), while the Barbados operation will be delisted from the Bridgetown-based exchange.

Sunday Business also understands that LIME Caribbean will then cross-list on several regional exchanges, including the JSE.

The transformation that is occurring is part of the US$400 million plan to merge C&W's 13 business units into a single regional entity.

The company's traditional blue and white colours have also been replaced by a splash of colour set against a black background, to present what the company describes as a modern Caribbean flair.

"We are going after the hearts and minds of our customers with a complete transformation of our business," Mariano Doble the executive vice president commercial, LIME Caribbean told Sunday Business at the launch of the rebranded operation.

"The business is moving from being technology or product oriented to customer oriented. We are responding to what our customers needs are and seeing how can we deliver it to them," Doble said.

With Cable and Wireless now playing second fiddle to Digicel in the regional mobile market and MiPhone on a strong marketing drive after being rebranded Claro Jamaica, Doble says the change to LIME is an indication that his company is ready for a fight.

Image in tatters

In fact, the company whose history as a monopoly - broken just seven years ago - has left its image in tatters, will no longer use the C&W name in its commercial dealings with its customers.

Doble says the new name captures the persona of Caribbean nationals.

"In the Caribbean 'lyme' actually means chill out and that is what our customers want and we want to deliver it so that they love us — which they don't now," Doble said.

Richard Dodd, chief executive offer of LIME Caribbean, said the rebranding also signals that the company was ready to do business differently, to be more responsive to what customers want.

"We have spent a lot of time listening to our customers and the customers of our competitors and they told us they wanted more. They want the level of service they see elsewhere in the world," said the CEO.

"LIME is a direct response to what they said."

Dodd pointed to a 15 point manifesto released by LIME which sets service standards the company says it is determined to meet.

These include a commitment to have calls to its customer service centres answered within one minute and the publication of its financial results showing investments in the region.

arthur.hall@gleanerjm.com

In a story titled ‘C&W now LIME’, published in Sunday Business, November 2, it was reported that Cable & Wireless will be delisted from the Jamaican and Barbados stock exchanges. This is incorrect. The company’s listings on both stock exchanges remain as they are.