Challenging tradition The Geberit Group

CHALLENGING TRADITION

The Geberit Group, a European market leader in sanitary technology, continues to challenge traditional ideas with its latest innovations. Felicity Landon reports.

Sanitary systems and piping systems for apartments, houses and larger buildings are supplied throughout the world by the Switzerland-based Geberit Group, with its products designed for use in new buildings as well as renovation and modernisation projects.

While its expertise can be summarised as designing and producing systems to manage the water flow in and out of buildings, Geberit’s product range is hugely varied and constantly developing, with innovative and challenging new ideas.

“We have a very aggressive innovation rate of 30 per cent,” says the CEO, Albert Baehny. “That means that on an annual basis we try to generate one-third of total sales with products introduced into the market during the past three years.”

Geberit, which reported sales of CHF 2.1 billion in 2010, employs nearly 6000 people in 41 countries. It is headquartered in Rapperswil-Jona and has been listed on the Swiss Stock Exchange since 1999. Sales are mainly concentrated on the major European markets, and the group says there are tremendous growth opportunities mainly in central and eastern Europe, the UK, North America, China and South East Asia.

Production profile

The group divides its products into two areas – sanitary systems and piping systems, with six major product lines cutting across the two.

Installation systems, which make up 37 per cent of total sales, are essentially the ‘backbone’ of the building – including products for pre-wall and in-wall installations and installation elements for wall-hung sanitary ware. The second largest product line, at 28 per cent of sales, is supply systems – the piping to bring fresh water to each part of the house, mainly metallic pipe systems and some plastic/metal combinations. Third comes drainage pipe systems, mainly plastic, for taking water out of the building; and fourth come cisterns and mechanisms, including flushing and filling components and encompassing visible as well as concealed parts and systems.

In many cases, Geberit’s products are hidden entirely from view. “To some extent, the end user isn’t really aware of what is installed behind the wall – we could be described as the hidden heroes!” says Mr Baehny. “Many people think we are solely a ceramic parts producer but what we do is mostly not in front of the wall at all – we are system building.”

He picks out a few of Geberit’s latest innovations for mention, some of which are entirely visible – others with their merits hidden away. The Geberit Monolith is a toilet with all of the system – flushing mechanism, cistern, etc – hidden within a wall-mounted panel behind the toilet. The advantage of the system is that installation can be done in just half a day.

“The Monolith is very elegant, high designed alternative to visible systems and very easy to install,” says Mr Baehny. “It is mainly aimed at the bathroom refurbishment market.”

The Geberit Shower is another important innovation – offering a technical solution that places water drainage for floor showers in the wall. “The trend today is for floor showers but the drain system normally located in the middle is difficult to install, not easy to repair and not really elegant,” he says. “The

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Geberit Shower element is integrated into the wall – easier to install, faster to install and a better design.”

A product for which he foresees major demand in Europe is the Geberit Shower Toilet. Combining a normal toilet with the functions of a bidet/small shower creates a product that is already well established in Asia, where there are many producers of shower toilets. However, this category is a new concept for Europe. “We have a broad range of products and access to the market, and so far we are the only company promoting a shower toilet here,” says Mr Baehny. “We are making excellent inroads in Switzerland, Austria, France, Germany and the UK; we are putting a lot of effort into sales and marketing to make sure that people are aware of these products, and market penetration is going well.”

Market presence

Geberit has a total of 15 production facilities – two in China, three in North America and the rest across Europe. All are well-established and each plant focuses on serving its regional market. The group is in the process of building a new plant in India. In addition, it is closing a plant in Slovenia and building a new, much larger one nearby. “We needed more space and more capacity and the only way to achieve it is to move away from the current site,” says Mr Baehny.

Geberit supplies exclusively to sanitary products wholesalers, which in turn sell to plumbers – who are installing and selling products to the end users. The group does not sell directly to architects, contractors or others.

The focus is always on products that are durable and ecologically efficient, and provide high-end sanitary solutions for retailers, plumbers and installers, says Mr Baehny. In 2010, the company trained about 30,000 plumbers, sanitary engineers and architects in Geberit systems and software tools at its network of 25 training centres across Europe and further afield.

Four per cent of overall sales are into North America, and there is a small level of business in Asia Pacific and the Middle East, but the overwhelming majority of sales are into Europe. Geberit sees opportunities, and is achieving the highest growth rates, in emerging markets including China, India and Russia, and the under-penetrated European markets. Dubai was a major market when construction was booming there – today, sales are still growing in the Middle East and Africa, but not at the same pace as before the crisis.

Mr Baehny says organic growth is the preferred route, although Geberit is keeping an eye on a few acquisition candidates and might consider one or two acquisitions. Meanwhile, innovation continues at apace. Water saving is a major driver of the group’s R&D and design efforts. “We need to develop systems that allow the end users to use less and less water,” he says. “There is still a great deal of room for innovation.” n