Changes at King Arthur Flour

[BakerAunt]

Alerted by Chocomouse's comment on the Baking Thread, I looked at my email and found the announcement that King Arthur has decided to jettison its logo and change its name.

The new name is King Arthur Baking Company. Ok, I can live with that, although I am concerned about the lessening emphasis on flour.

However, I DO NOT care for the new logo. Who the heck got paid to come up with THAT?

Spread the word

      

  

  

[chocomouse]

Does that new logo look like it belongs to Burger King? I'm OK with the new name - KA(F? BC?) as it does reflect more accurately the current mission of the company. But the knight, the horse! And that gorgeous knight in shining armor that stands in the entry way by the Cafe! I asked if they would be changing the name of the Sir Galahad and Sir Lancelot professional flours and the response was, so far, no change. I wish they had retained more of the historical connection to King Arthur.

[Mike Nolan]

What historical connection to King Arthur is that? They took the name 230 years ago and have no ties I'm aware of to Medieval English flour mills.

One of the BBGA members has reported in the BBGA forum that he has switched from King Arthur to a different flour source because of consistency issues.

I'm hoping that's just a temporary issue caused by the flour panic.

[BakerAunt]

It's the 230 years of history of the company. Let's face it, that "wheat crown" is cartoonish.

[chocomouse]

Mike, I was thinking back to the early 1800s when the Wood's flour company started. They carted their bulk flours through the street of Boston in wooden kegs stamped with pictures of a knight on a horse. I was not referring to any connection to the mythical kingdom of the Middle Ages. I do recall that the flour they first sold was imported from England, it was not milled from US raised wheat.

[cwcdesign]

I’m a little sad, but do know that times change and that they need to be aware of their customers. But that new logo is AWFUL!

[Italiancook]

I wondered if they changed the name because they're expecting all the new Covid bakers to continue to bake. Perhaps they want to accentuate the fact that they offer so much more than flour. But then I thought about all the time that goes into changing a name and logo and packaging and web design and decided they were working on this before Covid. The new logo doesn't bother me, perhaps because I have no idea what their old logo was.

I read the article about this change on the website. I didn't see anything in it about their web address changing. But when it typed in kingarthurflour.com, I noticed that on the site, it had changed to kingarthurbaking.com. I wonder if kingarthurflour.com will eventually not work.

[Mike Nolan]

They will certainly keep the kingarthurflour.com domain name, because they won't want anyone else to grab it, and at that point having a CNAME entry that equates it with the new domain name costs nothing.

[RiversideLen]

As long as their flour products remain the same, I'm OK with it.

[BakerAunt]

I agree with Italian Cook that King Arthur was working on this re-branding before Covid-19. They did some online questionnaires that came by email. I recall responding to at least two, and I have a hazy memory of the logo perhaps being mentioned.

That may also explain why some of their logo items are now in the sale section on their website.

BTW, I received an email from them today assuring loyal customers that they are still the same company, etc. and giving a $10 coupon that is good until next year. It may be that launching the re-branding during the pandemic, when people are already feeling somewhat lost, unnerved some of their customers.

[Joan Simpson]

I personally don't like the new logo but I hope the flour stays the same.

[skeptic7]

I don't like the new logo -- its boring and boring --, I prefer the old one which has more color and life.

[cwcdesign]

Did anyone else get the letter from KAF explaining the process of the new logo? They must have gotten a lot of blow back from the change.

• This reply was modified 4 years, 5 months ago by cwcdesign.

[BakerAunt]

Yes, I also received it. Several people had responded on the comment section about how great the new logo is. Of course, none of them said WHY they thought it was so great.

My takeaway from the letter is that the employee-owners selected the new logo. The email, and the discussion in the link, never said why they wanted a new logo.

[Mike Nolan]

I suspect political correctness was a factor in the reason to select a new logo.

BTW, Trader Joe's is dropping their branding of certain products as 'Trader Jose', 'Trader Joe San', etc.

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