Roto Inside 28 (EN) - Page 5

| 5 Together with renowned German suppliers, Ideal Fenster develops solutions that enjoy widespread acceptance from demanding builders and investors. The company has been working with window hardware from Roto for 15 years. Narrow, high, heavy, rarely white, highly symmetrical sash dimen- sions. More and more Italian builders and architects are looking for energy efficient PVC windows with a traditional design. Dr Josef Wörer aims to overcome aggressive price competition with service commitment from planning through to delivery. Equipped with remote- controlled Craylers, Ideal Fenster drivers can drop a customer’s consignment off even closer to the construction site than with their lorry. Grow together with a strong brand Ideal Fenster ■■ PVC “Builders in South Tyrol prefer buying from South Tyrolean window fabricators.” Dr Josef Wörer, general manager of Ideal Fenster GmbH is a man from this region and knows what he is talking about. At the start of the year he took over a small window-fabricating company near Brixen and in just a few months established it as his company’s third and northern-most production plant. Ideal Fenster has been manufacturing PVC windows in two mod- ern factories near the two northern Italian cities of Piacenza and Vicenza for over 35 years. However, for a long time the company primarily exported to Switzerland until, just over five years ago, the market for PVC windows ‘took off’ in Italy, says Dr Josef Wörer. “Italian profile and window fabricators who produced low-quality On the search for more energy efficiency Architects and builders now identified that affordable aluminium and timber windows were not able to achieve the required ther- mal and sound reduction values. So they started to look at PVC windows and aligned themselves with quality German brands. “And this led them directly to us”, smiles Dr Wörer. He has worked with German suppliers from the very start and with Roto for 15 years. “A brand whose quality is not questioned by anyone in Italy. It makes life easier for us.” However, life is currently being made more difficult by increasingly aggressive price competition from the surrounding European countries’ window fabricators. Investing in the brand As a result, Ideal Fenster has once again made major investments during the year – in a third production plant in the heart of south- ern Tyrol, more employees and three independent exhibitions in Milan, Bologna and on Malta. More will follow. “We have well over twenty full-time employees in sales, who talk to our custom- ers in retail as well as with builders and public officials. The new exhibition rooms at the three factory locations and the show- rooms that we have opened at central locations in our strongest sales territories are intended to continue to improve our consulta- tions with private builders”, Dr Wörer explains his concept. Ideal Fenster is also trying to raise awareness of its brand in northern Italy by attending around 15 regional exhibitions every year. Almost fifty in-house and field consultants Over 25 technical in-house consultants support Ideal Fenster’s field service colleagues. This ensures that no customer has to wait long for an offer – regardless of how comprehensive it is. Professional purchasing ensures a well-stocked warehouse at the three factories and competitive sales prices. “We keep a high level of inventory to ensure that we can deliver within three weeks of receiving the order. Speed is becoming increasingly im- portant, as the building industry has changed”, says Dr Wörer with conviction. While very special windows and doors, which are com- pletely different from those in other areas in Europe, are required in Italy, the trend by builders towards diversity and individuality would not work at the expense of delivery times. “While 96 percent of all windows that we deliver to Switzerland are delivered with white profiles, this figure is only 45 percent in Italy. Then there is our Italian customers’ fondness for abso- lutely symmetrical sash sizes and profile widths, for sash bars and arched windows. We produce a lot of very high, very narrow sashes for Italy, which are mostly installed as part of a renovation roof window, sometimes in the centre, other times flush with the interior surface and sometimes flush with the exterior surface. In addition, legislation requires the installation of heavy laminated safety glass in all windows and doors that do not end within one metre of the room height.” This means that forty percent of all windows and balcony doors produced by Ideal Fenster have to be fitted with laminated safety glass. Automation? Limited by diversity. This is also why all calculations on savings potentials that could be achieved by fully automatic window production have previously always proven to be an illusion with Ideal Fenster. “Our custom- ers want windows and lot sizes that are not compatible with fully automatic processing.” Providing high-quality, aesthetically appealing windows and doors at attractive prices remains the goal at Ideal Fenster. However, Dr Wörer believes that service from consulting through to installation last but not least is what makes a price attractive. “That’s why, for example, we equipped all our large lorries with Craylers, which allow the driver to pull up close to the construction site with a delivery, even along narrow roads. This saves time for the recipients, which is particularly appreci- ated by builders.” The workforce is growing together with sales Over ninety Ideal Fenster employees work at the Thiene parent plant near Vicenza, another 85 in the San Nicolò plant near Piacenza and there will soon be more than twenty at the Brixen plant, trending up, reports the company owner, obviously pleased. “We know that the demand for PVC windows with good Uf and Uw values will remain high in Italy for a few years yet and we are convinced that we can continue to increase our brand awareness and the success of Ideal Fenster”, he concludes, “as well as due to the fact that we rely on partners like Roto who can provide support with their innovations.” windows were long responsible for the bad reputation of PVC windows in the country. This made it difficult for high-quality pro- ducers, such as us, to grow. However, the demand for high-quality PVC windows leaped once legislation demanded more energy efficiency in buildings.” Dr Josef Wörer recently established Ideal Fenster’s third production plant for PVC windows in Brixen in southern Tyrol. Ideal Fenster is working hard to increase awareness of its brand with internal showrooms at the production locations as well as in large cities in northern Italy. Three individuals with a common goal (from left to right): Gianluigi Balestreri, general manager Roto Italy, Dr Josef Wörer, general manager of Ideal Fenster and Wolfgang Rienzner, Technical & Product Manager Roto Italy.

Roto Inside 28 (EN) - Page 5

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