V&M Star changes brand name

Staff report

youngstown

V&M Star, a global manufacturer of tubular pipe for the oil and gas industry, announced Wednesday that it would tweak its name slightly to Vallourec Star as part of a broader re-branding strategy.

The name change takes effect Saturday.

The company has invested more than $1 billion in Youngstown, where it first set up shop to manufacture pipe for the oil and gas industry in 2010.

V&M also has operations in Texas and Oklahoma. Worldwide, the company has operations in Germany, Brazil and France, where it has headquarters.

First established as a joint venture in 1997 by a French and German company, the announcement was billed as “a new milestone in the group’s history,” according to a press release.

The company has grown over the years to encompass various entities.

By uniting them under the same brand, V&M is betting that it will create better brand recognition and help to promote what it calls quality products with customers worldwide.

“We want the Vallourec brand to be the benchmark for performance, reliability and safety,” said Philippe Crouzet, chairman of Vallourec’s management board, in a statement.

“The adoption of a single brand is also a means to unite our 23,000 employees around a common culture based on innovation and excellence,” Crouzet said.