Annual Report 2014

Activity report
Fire protection & insulation
Promat’s activities in Latin America reap
the benefits of Etex’s strong reputation
and presence in local construction markets.
Dedicated Promat centres are active in
Etex companies across various countries,
including Colombia, Peru, Chile, Brazil
and Argentina. What is more, our strong
regional teams, though still small, continue
to tap into worldwide trends. This will lead
to positive prospects for the future.
Skilled people
The niche model that is ours, is quite
expensive. People need to have the correct
competences and need continuous training.
The segments are allowing us to learn to
thoroughly know the market and that is
starting to pay off.
The fact that a formal Promat Academy
is now operational clearly emphasises the
importance of competence management
and development at Etex.
Not only did we invest in the development
of a resilient sales and marketing approach,
we also built strong teams with clearly
defined focal points. They will address
global markets and industries, such
as Oil and Gas, Marine, Tunnels, High-
Performance Insulation, Building and
Ducting, and Nuclear Power Stations. For
all these segments, we managed to achieve
decent sales figures.
Aligning our organisation and mind-set
Promat continued to streamline our
worldwide organisation, fully integrating
our different sites. Our goal is to
consolidate a unified industrial base around
the globe, which in turn will further improve
our cost structure.
To do so, we carried out important
investments in our industrial infrastructure.
In Japan, for instance, we ploughed 5
million euro into our facility for highperformance
insulation, upgrading its
machinery and infrastructure. Likewise, our
2.8 million euro investment in a new factory
in the United States proved to be very
rewarding as well. Also, the transfer of our
industrial activities from Glasgow to Tisselt
progressed very well in 2014.
In addition, we further unified Promat’s
selling approach. The development of a
high-rate CRM tool and comprehensive
rebranding are just two examples of how
we aimed to achieve this. Promat also
installed websites on the group’s new
web platform containing a digitalised
catalogue — our first division to do so.
This is not only a great way to increase
our interaction with customers, but also
provides a sound basis for future digital
challenges.
Looking ahead
In the coming years, we aim to further
concretise our Promat 2020 project. This
thorough business exercise is geared to
our strengths and the changing business
environment. The goal? To identify and
capitalise on important trends, new supply
chains and business models, and possible
growth areas.
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