Spokesman for Electronic
Spokesman for Electronic Partner’s Managing Directors Haruyuki Director, Corporate Division For Promoting Energy Solution Business Panasonic Corporation Dr Rainer Chairman of the Supervisory Board, gfu Green Products @ IFA N°04 / September 2011 - March 2012 Sustainable Development Initiatives How Green Can You Go? How the new EU Energy Labelling System will change the way home appliances are identified Reinventing dishwashing Maximum performance meets minimum consumption – this contrast has been neatlyresolved by Bosch in the shape of ActiveWater. The term stands for nothing less thanthe invention of a revolutionary new dishwashing system that uses every single dropof water to the maximum. This innovative system generates the power of more than 4000 litres of water,making these dishwashers the most efficient and most powerful ever to leave our production line. Bosch is committed to implement theguiding principle of the company’s founder, Robert Bosch, which was “Rather lose moneythan trust.” Outstanding engineering, in accordance with a responsible, valueorientedapproach, assure that Bosch appliances satisfy the highest customer standards. For theyare characterised by work-saving innovations, advanced technology, excellent work-manship and exemplary design. Hall 3.1 Stand 101 Read more on @ cleversdi.org INDUSTRY SPOTLIGHT SMART REPORT Dr Jörg Ehmer SuStainable Devel pment initiativeS The Professional Buyers’ Reference Ishio n speCial iFa 2011 Keeping Up With ConsUmers’ eCologiCal ConsCienCe Hecker n What are your thoughts about the changes to Europe's energy labelling system? From our point of view, the introduction of the EU energy labelling system is a very positive measure. We, at Bosch, as a pioneering producer of highly-efficient and resource-conserving home appliances, have been offering washing machines and dishwashers that were much more resourceefficient than the previous label A could convey for some time. Our world record holder in resource efficiency, the ActiveWater Eco2, is now finally labelled with the highest category A+++ with a water consumption of 7 litres and a power consumption of 0.73 kWH per cleaning cycle. The introduction of the new categories A+, A++ and A+++ actually makes this advance in resource efficiency clear. How will these changes affect the way customers perceive products? The new label puts sustainable products in clear, reliable categories. Thus, it ideally supplements the Green Technology inside-Card that marks our most energyefficient and powerful home appliances with their savings potential in comparison with a 15-year-old appliance. In this respect, the new energy label perfectly underlines the technical competence of our brand and gives customers the opportunity to recognize sustainable products at a glance. How important is "being green" today as part of the buyers' decision making process? Customers are aware that “being green” is not only about saving the environment, but it’s also about saving them real money. With Bosch appliances, these benefits do not have to be sacrificed for convenience and performance – they are all united in our products. Yet, at Bosch, sustainability is not confined to our products, but it’s part of our entire brand philosophy that covers everything from our supply chain to production processes – a fact that was honored with the German Sustainability Award in 2008. How is Bosch working to further improve energy savings in its products and production processes? O u r e n g i n e e r s a r e continuously doing research in order to streamline and optimize our production processes and minimize the consumption values of our products. The brand Bosch is not only sustainable but also highly innovative, which results in ground-breaking, energy-efficient products with substantial quality. This can be seen, for e x a m p l e , f r o m o u r pioneering Zeolite®-drying technology for dishwashers which makes up for an alltime record-low in power consumption. Interview by Richard Barnes In light of the new EU energy labelling system, one of the most pertinent industries these new regulations will be affecting is the home appliances sector. As one of the top pioneers in energy efficient products, Bosch has recently changed their method for catagorizing for some of their products. We spoke with Michael Bohn, Vice President Marketing of Robert Bosch Hausgeräte on the changes and how Bosch is perfectly ready for this new challenge. “Customers are aware that ‘being green’ is not only about saving the environment, but it’s also about saving them real money” Michael Bohn Vice President Marketing at Robert Bosch Hausgeräte GmbH 38
Trade News Alain Maquet Alain Maquet serves as senior executive vice president Ingram Micro Inc. and president of Ingram Micro Europe, Middle East & Africa (EMEA) since July 2009. He provides direction for the company’s full 11-country operations throughout the EMEA region. Maquet leads Ingram Micro’s pan-European business unit and also V7, Ingram Micro’s worldwide private label division. ingram micro Inc Ingram Micro Inc., a Fortune 100 company, is the world’s largest technology distributor and a leading technology sales, marketing and logistics company for the IT industry worldwide. As a vital link in the technology value chain, Ingram Micro creates sales and profitability opportunities for vendors and resellers through unique marketing programs, outsourced logistics services, technical support, financial services and product aggregation and distribution. Since its beginnings in 1979, Ingram Micro has connected technology solution providers with vendors worldwide, identifying markets and technologies that shape the IT industry. Read more on @ clevercl.org The New World of IT and CE Distribution Ingram Micro – evolving, changing and adapting to the new sales paradigm Ingram Micro continues to be a broadline distributor, which has been its core function since the company started over 30 years ago, but we are also a multispecialist, and that is our clear differentiation. Currently, the company is structured into several different divisions in order to be able to deal with each product category or market segment appropriately, and to offer the different services, sales processes or technological capabilities that each area requires. It’s important to make sure that we are involved in the sales process as early as possible in order to add value and do more than merely fulfil an order. In 2010, our distribution activities covers data centre technologies, servers, data storage, high-end software, security, systems and emerging technologies that compliment data centres, such as unified communications. Value business, digital signage and DCPOS (Data Capture at Point of Sale) in 2010 was worth .5 billion in revenues. This puts us as one of the top value distributors in EMEA, and that is one of our specialities. Furthermore we have 375 people working on the value side of the business in Europe, and we have separate value divisions in 7 countries out of the 11 in which we operate; again that is why we are different. How has your presidency differed from that of your predecessor? When I took the position, the global economy was in the middle of a crisis, and my predecessor had been focusing on getting through a difficult period, mainly by realigning the company structure to market conditions. When I arrived, it was still the crisis, but it had passed its peak so I had the possibility to change the focus back to external opportunities on the vendor and customer side, in order to win back the market share we had lost and develop sales, and it has gone very well. Last year, we grew by 19% when measured in local currencies, which is much higher than the market average. I hear there will probably be a lot of over-stocking of tablets this year due to manufacturers trying to push them onto the market. Do you agree? Tablets are a unique case because Apple’s market share is still over 85%. Consequently the iPad suffers from short supply more than anything. We could have sold more iPads than we had in 2010, but that can change from one day to the next! And for sure we are going to see a lot of new products from all the traditional IT vendor/ manufacturers in the next weeks and months. So we need to be careful about Interview by Richard Barnes Ingram Micro is an historic player in the distribution sector, but as time goes on and convergence of IT and CE evolves, its role is changing. So just “what is” Ingram Micro today? We put the question to the one person who knows better than anyone else: the organisation’s European President, Alain Maquet… which ones might succeed and also we have to be aware of creating confusion in the channels due to too many new products, but we are monitoring the situation. Alain Maquet Senior Executive Vice President, Ingram Micro Inc. and President, Ingram Micro EMEA “We work constantly with our resellers to improve the supply chain (…)” www.ifa-international.org IFA International • Monday 29 th August 2011 39
