New UnumProvident logo may reflect shift South

PORTLAND – UnumProvident has dumped its familiar lighthouse in favor of a new red, white and blue corporate logo, symbolizing what some see as a shift away from Unum Corp.’s roots in Maine.

The lighthouse was Unum’s longtime symbol, dating to when it still was a mutual company owned by policyholders. The logo of its merger partner, Provident Companies Inc., resembled an arch. Paul Revere, which merged with Provident in the mid-90s, had the famous patriot as its symbol.

“What we wanted to do was get a fresh new look,” UnumProvident spokesman Todd Womack said. The new logo clears up confusion in the marketplace and provides a single identifying mark and name that represents the new company, he said.

“We call it the wave logo,” Womack said of the new design that has the name UnumProvident in blue atop staggered tiers of red and white.

The world’s largest disability insurer was listed on the latest roster of Fortune 500 companies as having its corporate headquarters in Chattanooga, Tenn., home of J. Harold Chandler, chairman and chief executive officer, and of Provident, which he headed before the merger.

The UnumProvident merger and the acquisition of Hannaford Bros. Co. of Scarborough by the Belgian-based parent of the Food Lion supermarket chain left Maine unrepresented on the Fortune 500.

UnumProvident’s annual shareholders meeting, held a year ago in Portland, was moved this year to Chattanooga where senior management now is concentrated.

The company maintains that it has a dual headquarters, and it often uses both Chattanooga and Portland on its promotional materials. Future annual meetings may rotate between the two cities, a spokesman said.

Portland still has the larger work force, and the insurer remains a major presence in the state’s largest city. UnumProvident has more than 3,000 employees in Portland, compared to roughly 2,500 in Chattanooga.

Despite those numbers, some observers detect a shift of power to the South.

When the merger was announced, Unum seemed to have the upper hand. It was larger in terms of assets and employees. It was assigned eight directors on the new board to Provident’s seven. Unum shareholders received 58 percent of the stock to Provident’s 42 percent. And its chief executive, James F. Orr III, was picked to head the combined company, with Chandler scheduled to take over in July 2001.

But appearances were deceiving, said Steve Hirshon, vice president of Maine Securities Co. of Portland.

“Even though there was a sense of Unum taking over Provident, at the very least it was considered a merger of equals,” he said. “It was very early in the process that people realized that Provident’s culture was going to be the dominant culture.”

Chandler became CEO when Orr left the combined company ahead of schedule on Nov. 1, 1999, just four months after the merger was completed. Expectations that Chandler would move to Portland never came to pass.

Since the merger, most senior executives in Portland either have transferred to Chattanooga or left the company. The latest to go is Elaine Rosen, executive vice president for customer development, who is working part time as a special adviser before leaving next year.

“That kind of tells the story. Jim Orr goes and Harold Chandler doesn’t move to Maine. Then, out of senior management, the last person from the old Unum leaves. And now the lighthouse is gone,” Hirshon said.

The wholesale departure of Unum’s senior management would lead one to conclude that Provident has emerged as the dominant culture, said Richard Grover, an associate professor of business administration at the University of Southern Maine.

Unum had gained a nationwide reputation for its worker-friendly environment, but changes announced as the merger was pending included a longer work day and a postponement of pay raises. There was even talk of a ban on blue jeans.

“When two companies come together, the cultures are so different. You can’t have both of them surviving,” Grover said. “The fact that the logo is changing is not at all surprising.”

Womack denies that one culture has prevailed over the other. Instead, he said, there has been a gradual blending.

“I think both cultures have melded and really formed a new company and a new corporate culture that pulls from both of the former companies,” he said, adding that the new logo reflects the corporation’s desire to project a new image to the public.