More Yell, Less Hibu in the Future

The global directories company Hibu is apparently beginning to de-emphasize its corporate brand in favor of its old moniker Yell. This is according to an article today in the British newspaper The Evening Standard.

Hibu has been undergoing substantial change recently. Last year, lenders took control of the company, removed its CEO Mike Pocock, and sent much of Pocock’s leadership team packing as well. David Eckert replaced Pocock and has since focused on rebuilding the company by cutting costs and killing under-performing or low-margin products and services. Now, it appears the new leadership is focusing on the brand.

The Hibu brand is closely associated with Pocock’s tenure, during which the company’s fortunes went from bad to worse. It’s therefore no surprise that Hibu would begin to distance itself from the corporate brand and try to revive Yell, the brand that reigned during better times.

According to the Evening Standard article, Hibu employees, in the UK at least, are now expected to say they work for Yell, not Hibu. It’s worth noting that while Hibu has been pushed down from corporate to the consumer level, the brand Yell never entirely went away on the print side of the business.

Hibu operates print and digital directories, and sells digital services like website production and hosting, in the United States, the United Kingdom, Spain and Latin America.