Trends and innovations for 2019

Saving water

During an Accadueo conference 'Let's value water', it emerged that Italy is a country in enormous need of investment in the water sector. In Europe we are the country richest in water but the poorest in infrastructure, in fact we waste almost half of the water distributed. It is a sector where companies cannot stop but must bring innovation. Idral is always very attentive to the direction of the market and tries to seize in advance what the market itself requires. That is why, for 2019, it is also preparing to face new challenges by preparing an investment plan on several fronts, from innovation in production, to offering new product lines, bringing more advantages to our customers to face the market, while respecting water conservation.

Digital Transformation

With this in mind, we are taking the first steps towards Industry 4.0, for which we expect to be operational by the end of 2019 with a new extension and a very state-of-the-art production set-up that will be able to meet our customers' demands very quickly, reducing order processing times to a minimum. In addition, we have already installed a state-of-the-art industrial robot. Digital transformation will provide new opportunities to deal with an increasingly uncertain environment. In fact, the 2018 market has been very erratic with peak months and quieter months; in these first months of 2019 we can see a slight recovery but it is still too early to say if the situation will stabilise or if we will fall back into a stalemate. Looking at the European market, the situation is not the best: economic and political difficulties are now a common denominator in all countries and this does not allow us to make satisfactory forecasts. As for the more distant markets, they have great potential but it is important to find the right channel. An important consideration is the online market, a sales channel that is developing and changing the rules of the market: at the moment only a few products in the 'bathroom' sector are sold through e-commerce, but with very significant annual growth figures. The web helps to have more visibility, to document the end user and certainly to make him much better prepared, and it is for this reason that training at the point of sale is becoming increasingly important, only those who are able to offer a competent service will be successful in the future.

Innovation

The challenges continue with the release of the new technical and commercial catalogue, which will see a rearrangement of existing products, but above all some nice innovations in the various sectors: for example, we will expand our electronic range with new proposals, proposing solutions with different designs and new articles that change the way of thinking about public bathrooms. In the timed sector there will be a revolution for the mixer part, in fact we will present a completely new system that does not yet exist in this family. With a view to offering alternative and avant-garde solutions, the new line of timed taps in 316L stainless steel will be included in the catalogue: the top quality of this material makes our products suitable for a wide variety of environments where air and water quality can be aggressive for the metal. We increasingly want to become a reference point for the public bathroom sector by offering solutions that can satisfy our interlocutor by bringing advantages and economic benefits.

Partnership

We will always continue with our visits to points of sale and with ongoing training for our sales personnel; we will also insert a person dedicated to increasing our pre- and post-sales services, managing our network of service centres that now covers the whole of Italy. We will provide training and information to design studios by presenting solutions that will facilitate work for the entire supply chain, optimising costs and benefits. We will participate in two important events: in March at the ISH world trade fair for our sector in Germany, and at the end of September at the Cersaie trade fair in Bologna. Two events that will allow us to present our achievements and welcome our customers and our entire sales network for a greeting and an exchange of information that can help us mutually. A new year full of challenges to contribute to water saving, hygiene and accessibility in public environments.