Summary
¦ Sonae has invested £1m on Innovus across Europe.
¦ The Innovus range consists of 150 decors.
¦ New communication tools including social networking sites will be used to promote Innovus.
¦ An Innovus Centre has been designed at the Knowsley plant.
At the stroke of midnight on New Year’s Eve, Sonae Industria will launch Innovus across Europe.
The launch is designed to bring a completely different dimension to Sonae’s decorative offer, offering melamine-faced chipboard, high pressure, continuous and compact laminate and complementary edging tapes to both industrial and distribution customers.
Sonae has invested about £1m across Europe on Innovus as it refocuses on the decorative panels market to compensate for reduced chipboard demand in housing markets.
Building on the success of the Urban Chic brand, Sonae has identified a requirement from the market to give the customer something different – something that allows ease of purchase, whilst retaining the most up-to-date designs, at the most cost-effective price point.
It promises that Innovus will bring to the market a “completely different way of doing things” in the way it embraces new communication and web tools.
“Sonae has significantly grown its share of the decorative panels market in the past five years,” said Sonae UK sales and marketing director David Chapman.
Industrial and distribution sectors
“Focusing on partnerships in the industrial and distribution sectors, we’ve continued to grow our business year on year, and with the launch of Innovus, take our market share to new levels. As the decline in the housing markets continues, we have refocused on decorative products in order to maintain full production in the UK and the Continent.
“Innovus is the biggest step we’ve taken in securing growth in the decorative market,” he added. “We’re very serious about how the brand is portrayed and the message it gives to the market across Europe.”
Focusing on a “new way to create”, the complete Innovus range will be able to be sourced from stock throughout Europe and features full FSC accreditation, as well as almost 100% recycled material as Sonae seeks to offer the most environmentally-friendly decorative products in the market.
Sonae UK will manufacture product at its Knowsley site, where it will maintain a stock of over 60 decors, many of them new designs, and supplement this production with laminates manufactured at Horn and Maia.
To complete the full portfolio of decorative products for the UK market, matching painted MDF will be available from the Le Creusot plant in France. Sonae’s total Innovus range will consist of over 150 decors that can be sourced from France, Germany and the UK and will be available to all European customers.
Communcation tools
As well as traditional sales support items, Sonae’s new communication tools will be focused on the web. The Innovus website, which has an unusual URL – www.innovus.co – has features such as downloadable mood boards, technical specifications and new blog-type communication streams for customers, design professionals and architects to keep the market informed of the latest developments. Users will need to become members, with different levels of access granted for distributors.
“Apps are being designed, social network sites will be launched and we will communicate with the market in a completely different way,” added Mr Chapman.
As Sonae has more than doubled its décor range, so it has a strategy of doubling the number of its distribution partners. In December, it will announce 12 Innovus distributors, including six new distributors for the company.
Sonae’s strategy will be further supported by the recruitment of two specialist sales people whose role will be to develop distributor and industrial sales of Innovus. They will have full support of the Innovus team in Europe.
ZOW event
A special event for Sonae customers will take place in Germany and will run concurrently with the ZOW exhibition in Bad Salzuflen from February 14-17. Customers from all over Europe will be able to view the complete Innovus range in gallery-like surroundings at a special location.
To complete the experience, Sonae has designed an Innovus Centre at its Knowsley plant. The state-of-the-art area compromises galleries, multi-media and lecture facilities and meeting rooms, the centre is available to the Innovus partners to promote the brand.
In January, Innovus products will be dispatched from Knowsley in 10 new vehicles displaying the Innovus livery. Adding a touch of fun to the launch, Sonae will provide a prize each month to the customer, designer or architect that provides the best photograph of the Innovus trucks in locations across Europe. Entries can be emailed to c.mcpoland@sonae.co.uk.
