Nathan Heyes

Head of Digital

I have over 10 years of experience in digital marketing, starting as a web design apprentice and working up to Head of Digital. I manage full-funnel operations, such as: Paid Ads, SEO, Website Management, Social Media Marketing, Data Analysis and overall creative marketing direction. I’m looking to bring these skills in-house to support a business owner with their growth aspirations.

Does this sound like something you need? Email me at nathanheyes98@gmail.com

GBC Industrial Tools

GBC is an international name in pipework fabrication machine manufacturing. After receiving a refreshed logo and seeing their Italian partner company undergo a full brand overhaul, GBC UK needed to modernise their domestic presence to match their global reputation.

The Challenge

Despite GBC’s authority in the manufacturing sector, their website, print brochures, and marketing materials had fallen out of fashion, having not been updated since 2010. Smaller competitors were beginning to capitalise on GBC’s outdated digital presence.

GBC UK approached me to oversee a complete brand modernisation across digital and print, bringing their UK visual identity in line with their international sister company while firmly re-establishing their national market dominance.

Research & Discovery

I began with a deep dive into the competitor landscape, auditing rival platforms to identify where they were succeeding and where GBC could overtake them. I also spent time analysing the history and heritage of GBC to ensure any design changes respected their established brand authority.

Looking closely at their web analytics, I identified a near 50/50 split in traffic between desktop and mobile users. This meant a mobile-first, fully responsive design strategy would be critical.

Furthermore, customer journey research revealed a common friction point in the industry: potential buyers often knew the job requirements or pipe specifications they needed to solve, but struggled to identify the exact machine or tool required from a complex catalogue.

Execution Process

Applying UX/UI best practices and conversion rate optimisation (CRO) principles, I set to work rebuilding the web experience in Figma for both mobile and desktop viewports. To solve the product selection barrier, I designed an in-depth, intuitive product filter that guided users step-by-step to the exact pipe tool for their specific application.

Beyond the website, I audited their existing printed collateral and discovered their technical brochures had been poorly translated from the original Italian versions. I led the overhaul of these materials, redesigning data sheets, sales brochures, and email footers using the sister company’s global brand guidelines to ensure total visual and linguistic consistency across all regions.

To build ongoing brand reach and safeguard their industry reputation, I also expanded GBC onto social media, setting up, managing, and creating regular content for both LinkedIn and Facebook.

The Results

The modernised web platform and refreshed marketing materials successfully reasserted GBC’s national dominance in the pipework fabrication industry.

By removing user friction with the custom product filter and upgrading their print and digital touchpoints, we effectively widened the gap between GBC and their smaller market competitors, giving their UK team a sleek, authoritative presence that accurately reflects the quality of their machinery.