On the afternoon of April 20, the "Cross-regional Slate Determines the Future" 2021 China Slate Summit, co-organized by China Ceramics Headquarters, China Slate New Material Exhibition and Procurement Base, and Ceramic Industry News Digest, was shared offline in China The multi-energy conference hall on the third floor of the Ceramics Headquarters came to a successful conclusion. Sharing from multiple angles and dimensions, I believe it will bring a lot of thinking and help to friends in the industry. The following is the dry information shared by Wei Jiguo, founder of the HBI global imported ceramic tile selection platform!
2021 is my 18th year in the ceramic industry. In the past 18 years, I have been engaged in international trade for 15 years. In the process of 15 years, I have continued to communicate and learn from international brands. In the past three years, taking advantage of the booming development of China's building ceramics market and the popularity of slate, combined with its own experience and strength, it established the HBI global imported ceramic tile selection platform.
I think the fundamental difference between domestic slate and international slate is the starting point. The first self-produced slate in China was born in a ceramics company. Domestic slates still use ceramic tiles as the starting point to find their differences. Internationally, the first rock slab was born in System, which everyone knows is a ceramic machine equipment manufacturer. Whether it is the birth of foreign rock slabs or the upgrading and replacement of the entire rock slab system, it is actually promoted by ceramic machine equipment manufacturers. From the very beginning, foreign slate manufacturers have clearly regarded slate as a new type of plate after marble, wood, and aluminum.
Our team carefully selected 4 Italian ceramic groups and 2 Spanish platforms, sorted out the product matrix, production equipment, channel layout and other aspects of these top international slate brands, and then summarized and shared the characteristics of these international slate brands. Something in common.
/ 4 Italian ceramic groups /
· LAMINAM
We have selected 4 Italian brands that are currently more influential on the international stage. When did the slate production in Italy begin? It should be in 2001 that Italian colleagues began to study it. The first rock slab was actually born in 2004, and the promoter behind it was the System mentioned just now. System has been a well-known brand since the days when ceramics were still printed using rollers. In 2001, System established a specialized slate brand called LAMINAM. LAMINAM actually developed from the verb Laminated, which translated into Chinese means "pressed into thin sheets/thin plates". It can be seen that the newly developed rock slabs have the advantage of being thin.
LAMINAM’s first generation product was the 3mm rock slab launched in 2004. Based on System's own equipment advantages, LAMINAM's products brought a new product forming method to the building ceramics industry at that time - belt rolling, boundaryless rolling, which allowed gas to be discharged more easily without generating more residual stress. Ensuring that the material is thin enough and light enough is one of the characteristics of LAMINAM. Another feature of LAMINAM products is that the thickness conversion is very flexible. Early machines can already achieve 3-20mm, and I believe there will be greater breakthroughs in the future.
At present, LAMINAM's entire product matrix has nearly 120 SKUs (SKU: inventory holding unit is the unit of measurement of inventory in and out, which can be in units of pieces, boxes, pallets, etc.). Among the 128 product designs, 109 are matte products, and the other 19 are both matte and glossy. The matte texture rate accounts for 85%.
LAMINAM is a slate brand dedicated to the practical technology of ceramic-based equipment. Its main sales channels are construction projects, interior projects, facade projects, and home furnishing manufacturers. After the production of 12 and 20mm thick plates in 2015, the channels expanded to marble. The processing plant, the marble installer, and finally the dealer. LAMINAM defines slate as a new type of material after stone and aluminum. It is vigorously promoted through channels such as construction projects, interior projects, home furnishing manufacturers, and marble installers. However, it is weak in the construction of a distribution system.
· Panaria
Panaria is a brand worthy of being written into the history of system equipment promotion. In fact, Panaria also introduced System slate equipment as a ceramic tile manufacturer in 2004, almost at the same time as LAMINAM. But there is one difference: Panaria is the first company to use LAMINAM's technology for inkjet printing to produce rock slabs. Panaria produced 3mm and 6mm products in 2004, and launched 12mm-20mm related products in 2020. The entire product lineup is very strong, and the surface is generally matte.
Panaria was founded in 1964 as a traditional ceramics manufacturer. Panaria owns a number of distinctive brands. Therefore, in the sales matrix of slate slabs, there are two parts of Panaria’s strategy. One part is under several original brands. , using the original engineering and distribution networks of various brands to promote the sales of thin rock slabs with Slimtech as the technical level. The other part, under Corro diesto is Kerlote, a brand specializing in thin slates, engineering, facades and furniture. Panaria's entire product portfolio consists of 5 major brands, distinguished by thickness., forming a brand layout with different brands separated by thickness.
· Florim
Unlike the above two groups, Florim is a brand that uses SACMI Continue equipment for production. We see that there are 6 brands under Florim, and the one that everyone may be more familiar with in China is Rex. LAMINAM System equipment basically emphasizes the thinness of rock slabs, but since SACMI equipment entered the rock slab industry, rock slabs are no longer just thin, but also getting bigger and bigger. From LAMINAM's Laminated to Panaria's Slimtech, they are all characterized by thinness. When it comes to Florim, the size is characterized by large sizes. And 10 years later - in 2020, rock slabs are not only characterized by large sizes, but more importantly, they focus on new positioning. Many brands have begun to develop specialized and targeted new brand layouts for slate countertops, marble processing, installation, furniture channels, etc. It can be seen that in addition to having a clear positioning of slate, the Italian Slate Group also has a very clear idea for the management of slate brands. Florim took the series name "Magnum large format" (Chinese: super large board) for large products made of Sacmi, and established an independent brand called Florim stone for the 6mm, 12mm and 20mm slate products of this large board. Make countertops, wall and floor applications, facades, etc.
Florim’s product matrix, you can clearly feel that the color is increasing. The Rex mentioned just now is actually a brand with luxury as its iconic symbol. In addition, compared with domestic companies, most Italian companies are not equipped with polishing machines. This is why the other two companies we just looked at have more matte surface products, but looking back at Florim, we will find that their polished surface slates have more polished surface slates than other brands. The entire product structure contains 162 designs. 98 models have a matte texture, and 64 models have a combination of gloss and matte texture. Florim’s matte texture share is 60%. The first two brands are almost 75%-85%. The decrease in the share of Florim's matte surface products is partly due to its own brand attributes, and the other is due to Florim's ability to polish.
Compared with System, Sacmi's obvious advantages are that it has greater production capacity and that Sacmi has the entire line output capability. Sacmi's machines have the highest processing efficiency in the front, middle and back-end of the entire line output. It is NO.1.
Florim has five of its own brands, which are mainly focused on engineering and retail. Florim stone mainly promotes exclusive products in exclusive fields.
·Iris
IrThere are many brands under is that everyone is familiar with, especially FMG. It is worth mentioning that FMG actually focuses on brand distribution and engineering. Why is it the distribution of brands? Because FMG has a strong brand agent, the sales of rock slabs are actually the upgrade of corresponding products through brand distribution channels.
Glossy surfaces account for a large proportion of Iris' product structure. One reason is determined by the brand line. Some brands of Iris Group focus on luxury style; at the same time, Iris also has its own exclusive polishing system. At present, the entire product system of Iris is very large, with 253 SKUs, of which 135 are matte texture, 118 are glossy, and the matte surface accounts for only 53%. It also uses equipment from Sacmi Continue. Like Florim, it only officially launched slate products in 2014. As of 2017, a total of 12-20 products have been launched.
Iris has different product ratios in different channels. For example, FIANDRE has 71 SKUs, 42 types of luxury stones and 29 types of matte, with a matte texture accounting for 41%. It specializes in high-end luxury channels. As for Iris, most domestic consumers feel that it has a lot of glossy products, but in fact there are not many glossy products exclusively for the Iris brand. Many other glossy products are actually produced by Chinese manufacturers in cooperation with FMG. FMG has 783 SKUs, 23 marbles, 70% matte texture, and focuses on engineering and retail distribution.
Iris Group, like Florim Group, has a series of rock slab products under the name "MAXIMUM" under several major brands, which mainly provide the brand's original engineering and sales channels.
The sub-brand "Ultra" was opened under the Anostea brand specifically for professional slate channels.
/ 2 Spanish platforms /
The development of branded slate in Spain is still relatively slow, and there are not many companies that can make slate. The first slate production line should have been put into operation in 2008. For the Spanish section, I chose two brands, one is NEOLITH and the other is INALCO.
· NEOLITH
NEOLITH is actually the famous Desais in China. NEOLITH brand equipment uses System. In the early days, NEOLITH was OEMed at the Laminam factory. It was only in 2012 that it began to put in production lines to independently produce 3 and 6mm rock slabs. The field that Desis is in is also the field in which it is more focused - kitchen cabinets, tooling, and home decoration. For now, in the closetIn the field of cabinets, Desaise has a very high high-end share in China. Desaise's sales positioning is still focused on engineering projects and cabinet manufacturers. Like LAMINAM, Desaise is not good at retail systems and brand dealerships. The entire product structure has 64 designs, including 4 different thicknesses, and the matte share is also very high, 75%.
· INALCO
INALCO has been using ITOP's technology since 2014 to develop slates that are not limited to walls and floors. ITOP combines the best technology, attractive designs and unique textures to produce many distinctive stone slabs. When we checked the data, we found that INALCO's products have a 100% matte texture share. They are basically divided into two sections, one is 3mm and 6mm, the series is called ISLIMM, and the other is 12mm and 20mm, the series is called ITOP. ISLIMM has 28 products with matte texture, plus 5 honed (soft-gloss); ITOP has 24 SKUs, of which 19 are matte and 5 are soft-gloss. Regarding sales channels, INALCO does not focus on being a brand agent. Basically, it uses different channels with different positioning and operates based on the thickness of the slate.
/ What international slate brands have in common /
The development of international stone slabs has gone through nearly 20 years. Let’s summarize what relatively mature international brands have in common?
1. Product diversity. The matrix of international slate brand products is more complete. International slate brands have made clear and standardized subdivisions on which channels products with different functions, thicknesses, luminosity and textures can take.
2. Performance diversity. The performance must be specific to the field in which the rock slab is used. The brands mentioned above have already done many successful commercial project cases. In these large and small projects, these international brands are also constantly improving the performance of their products, such as impact resistance, toughness, sound insulation, etc. . At the same time, for some special scenes such as hospitals and schools, these international brands are also taking the lead in enhancing the antibacterial, fireproof and high-temperature resistance of slate.
3. Application diversity. Stone, cabinets, home furnishing production, etc. are areas where domestic slate brands are still slowly exploring, but international brands have already done a great job. Taking Desas as an example, it has now set up more than 30 brand stores across the country and completed more than 3,000 kitchen cabinet samples.
/ The future of rock slabs /
What is the future of rock slabs? In fact, this is a big topic and a very open topic. I think what drives the real development of a material is the development of channels and the development of equipment. As for channels, does the future belong to us? We can look at the channels that have been developed and designed. Can we really provide good services? Can we create customer value and achieve professionalism and satisfaction? Let’s look at untapped channels, such as the door industry, ship applications, etc. Can we continuously upgrade product performance? Can product performance meet untapped needs? The channels that we have not imagined require the wisdom of all peers and people in the domestic and international industries to imagine and develop.
The more possibilities there are to fundamentally promote products, I think the future of rock slabs will be more plastic and more promising. In the slate industry, what I admire very much are companies that engage in intelligent manufacturing of equipment. They never stop their efforts and attempts to challenge themselves and break through themselves. Recently, System has launched a new product called Superfast, which has made a new breakthrough in the competition with Sacmi. The production capacity of Superfast can reach more than 24,000 units, and the production capacity is further enlarged, which undoubtedly threatens Sacmi. As just mentioned, one of Sacmi's advantages is production capacity. Superfast can not only achieve a large increase in production capacity, but also expand the thickness to 3-30mm, which is currently mostly 3-20mm.
In addition to continuous breakthroughs in production capacity, System and Sacmi are also constantly working hard on the texture of rock slabs, hoping to make breakthroughs in creating relief concave and convex textures. I believe these are the directions in which the next generation of rock slabs will work hard and develop in the future.
Finally, I would like to end my sharing with one sentence. Whether it is the international market or the domestic market, I believe that we must embrace changes, catch up with new competition, seize the future, and seize the essence of things. Turn the future into the present, and everything can be expected in the future. Thank you all!
