IN THE SPOTLIGHT
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maintain our business in virtually all Europe faced severe problems and ing out to support your company’s came to a virtual standstill, we of our markets. growth? continued to operate non-stop. As Germany is currently our largest inH. Pehlivan: Projects to improve the a result, we were able to achieve ternational market. efficiency of our production plants are Over the last three years we’ve much higher growth in some always at the top of our agenda. markets compared with the same made remarkable headway in GerThat was the case before the panperiod in 2019, while maintaining many, particularly with VitrA, and demic and it continues to be so now. our level of business in other Germany’s effective handling of Another top priority is to make our countries. During the first few the pandemic has made the trend business more efficient through digcritical months of the pandemic, we sustainable. italization. We should also stress the also optimized our use of financial The markets most affected by the important contribution made by our resources and rationalized our pandemic were the UK - partly due expenses. hygienic surface technologies to safto the economic impact of Brexit in er and healthier living spaces. recent years - and France. During In addition, we are continuing to dethe early stage of the pandemic, we velop many innovative systems for were unable to achieve the growth we desired in these the worlds of design and architecture and to expand markets due to lockdowns, but the situation is improv- our product portfolio through collaboration with intering now. national designers. As for Russia, where we started tile production in SerI’m confident that V&B’s new Pro Achitectura 3.0 colpukhov in 2011 and which is one of our largest strategic lection will inspire architects and designers. In short, markets with double-digit growth in 2019, we will con- we aim to be one of the first brands that come into our tinue to invest in both our VitrA and V&B brands by of- stakeholders’ minds when they think of design, high fering market-specific designs and products. quality, service and delivery. It seems that this pandemic is going to be with us for Tile International: Do you agree that the pandemic a while, so we need to adapt to this new reality, take has changed consumer behaviour and will continue to the necessary precautions, and carry on with our lives. do so in the future? Accordingly, we expect the slowdown in demand H. Pehlivan: Numerous research studies indicate that to be gradually replaced by renewed vitality. Based consumer behaviour has changed in recent months. on our sales, that revitalization has long begun, as in First of all, with more time spent at home, many fammany markets we have returned to the sales volumes ilies have noticed details in their houses that need imachieved at the beginning of 2020. proving and now they want to get the work done quickTile International: Despite a negative construction ly. So we expect to see a surge in renovation demand in outlook in most countries, what are your forecasts for both online and offline sales channels. Our brands have this year? an extensive sales network and a high level of experH. Pehlivan: We’re doing business in a sector that is tise in design and renovation, so they are well prepared very sensitive to economic swings and consumer be- to respond to this demand across numerous markets haviour. While construction has been one of the sec- and channels. tors most affected by the crisis, this year has actually Another important change in consumer behaviour is been quite active for us. the growth in online shopping. People who had nevDespite the contraction and the negative impacts of er used e-commerce platforms began using them durthe pandemic, it’s clear that we will close the year with ing the first long lockdown period, and surveys show a good performance in some markets. Elsewhere, our that they plan to continue doing so in the foreseeable objective is to maintain our level of business, assum- future. Of course, many consumers used to shop oning that the second wave of the pandemic does not hit line before the pandemic, but we now see people usthese economies as hard as it did in the second quar- ing digital channels for more than just shopping - most ter of the year. notably for education but also for hobbies. Tile International: Which projects are you carry- This means that people are becoming much more in-
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