Bass, the hotel and leisure group, is climbing a multi-million-pound print mountain to change its name to Six Continents.


The company, which trades in over 100 countries, has 3,200 hotels and over 500,000 guest rooms, said it wanted the name to reflect its global reach from 54,000 staff.
Bass chief executive Tim Clarke said: The costs for changing the name, such as printing new stationery and making signs, will run into the low single millions.


But design work alone has cost 375,000, and calling time on the Bass name would involve new branded items such as corporate brochures, letterheaded paper, envelopes and other stationery.


Londons Royle Print produces brochures for the company. Bass did not say how many other printers it used or if new ones would be taken on.
We have known about the name change for about a year and will be able to keep the job very manageable, a Bass spokeswoman said. It also tied in with the postcode changes in central London.


The name change, put forward by an employee, is due on 30 July and breaks the trend for made-up names such as Accenture, once Andersen Consulting, said Bass.
Six Continents would be a corporate and not a brand identity and its hotel chains such as Holiday Inn or Inter-Continental would keep their existing names.


The company sold its Bass name, trademark red triangle and its brewing operations last August to Interbrew from Belgium.
A condition of the 2.3bn sale was for the seller to change its name within a year.


Story by Jez Abbott