Fuji Heavy Industries (FHI) has announced that it will be changing its company name to Subaru Corporation with effect from April 1. 2017. Ahead of that, the company says it will be integrating its Industrial Products Company with the Subaru automotive business from October 1 this year.
The aerospace and ground transportation giant says that the move away from its long-familiar company name is to unify it with its brand name. In doing so, it says it is looking to achieve greater growth for Subaru as a distinctive global brand in the automotive and aerospace industries.
The moniker switch will coincide with the 100th anniversary of the 1917 founding of the Aircraft Research Laboratory by Chikuhei Nakajima, which was later to become Nakajima Aircraft. The company became part of FHI when the latter was established in July 1953 with the banding together of five companies. Its primary business of Subaru automobiles began with the introduction of the Subaru 360 minicar in 1958.
The move to rename the company to Subaru Corporation cements the association with its automotive concern that began in 2003 when FHI adopted the Subaru logo as its corporate symbol. Subaru is the Japanese name for the Pleiades open star cluster – the Seven Sisters, as the cluster is also known as, provides the basis for the brand’s logo, representing the five companies that merged to form FHI, the sixth and largest star in the frame being the company that came about from the merger.
Aside from the announcement of the name change made today, the automaker also stated that its projected global sales for the fiscal year ending March 2017 is expected to exceed a million units for the first time in its history. Subaru is forecasting sales of 1,050,000 units, on a consolidated basis.
Looking to sell your car? Sell it with Carro.
Confidence in Motion
It’s about time. They changed logo but haven’t change the name.