October 26, 2020

Shred-it Achieves Superbrand Status Again

Shred-it joins the ranks of UK business Superbrands® 2020/21
A singular brand focus to ‘protect what matters’ propels Shred-it to Superbrands status for the second year.

Shred-it has been awarded Business Superbrands status for 2020/21, achieving this for a second year. We specialise in providing a tailored information destruction service that helps businesses to comply with legislation and helps to ensure that customer, employee and confidential business information is protected.
 
The Business Superbrands survey process is independently run with one of the world's leading data research companies and has been tracking the perception of a wide range of business brands in the UK since 2001. It follows a voting process involving 2,500 business professionals with purchasing or managerial responsibility, supplemented by an expert council comprising 20 senior business-to-business marketing leaders.

This year's survey evaluated a shortlist of 1,600 business-to-business brands across 63 categories from 'Accountancy & Business Services' to 'Waste Management & Recycling'. Only the most highly-regarded brands from each category are awarded Superbrand status.

Unlike many industry awards, brands do not pay or apply to be considered. In order to provide a broad review of the market and identify the strongest brands in each category, all the key players in each sector need to be voted on by an independent panel.

All voters were asked to judge brands against the three core factors inherent in a Superbrand: quality, reliability and distinction. Additionally, brand perception and voting by individuals is also influenced by a range of both short and long-term factors, from the brand’s current profile to its latest marketing activities and new product and service developments, giving a holistic picture of how brands are currently perceived.
 

Shred-it brand history:

  • 1988 - Greg Brophy founds Shred-it
  • 1993 - Shred-it grows, expands overseas and launches a manufacturing division
  • 2002 - Further expansion with state-of-the-art records management and storage facilities
  • 2014 - Shred-it merges with Cintas Document Shredding, operating under the Shred-it brand
  • 2015 - Shred-it is acquired by Stericycle and becomes a wholly owned subsidiary
  • 2019 – Cindy J. Miller is appointed Stericycle’s President and Chief Executive Officer
  • 2020 – Shred-it operates in 170 markets throughout 18 countries worldwide, servicing more than 500,000 global, national and local businesses


Damon Segal, Co-Founder, The Academy of Chief Marketers (Superbrands UK) comments: "We are excited to have Shred-it on board with us for a second year and look forward to them being part of our community of collaborative senior marketing and brand focused members." 

Secure document and media destruction are important in today’s data driven environment as security compliance and risk management have become a critical part of the business landscape. This is being driven by several factors including a greater and broader understanding of security risks and data breaches; privacy concerns and stricter regulation such as the EU’s GDPR around data loss prevention; and the need to view sensitive data and related systems as critical infrastructure.

Andrew Johnston, Marketing and PR Director EMEAA for Shred-it, stated: “In an increasingly challenging market and with COVID-19 affecting businesses of all types and sizes, Shred-it continues to ensure a clear point of differentiation to distinguish its offering. Shred-it identified a number of key insights following research of its worldwide customer base which led to the brand’s positioning around the ‘We protect what matters’ strapline. Shred-it protects people, it protects customers, it protects brands and reputations and it protects the environment. This has enabled the brand to better focus its communications around the core idea of protection – the brand’s red thread – which is transferable across markets, sectors and channels. There has never been a more important time to live our ethos of ‘we protect what matters’.”

Shred-it has a one team, one goal motto with a customer first approach, to ensure the safeguarding, understanding and managing of confidential information. Our values around excellence in service provision, depth of experience and sector knowledge, accountability and integrity, together with sustainability and continuous improvement underpin our leading market position. The values deliver peace of mind and help organisations stay in control through being Shred-it protected.

They are encapsulated in our brand strapline: We protect what matters.


To learn more about Shred-it as a Superbrand, watch the video.