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More Information
More Information
Team game
Idrobase, Idrotech, Club dei Riparatori, HydroEast, Perfect Cool: five businesses, each working in a specific area. Together they form a complete solution in the market for high pressure water, complementing and supporting each other.
Organization
All five businesses have their headquarters in the one building in Borgoricco, Padova. Production, managing deliveries, supply of stock, research into new products, research and development and administration are common values. Sales and marketing are carried out separately. Each of the four businesses has its own offices and dedicated staff, its own marketing support and its own internet site.
The Team
We prefer to develop our staff, investing in them by taking on young people, fresh from university or school. We pass the firm’s objectives and the more delicate tasks on to them. For this reason, new staff are employed directly by the managers concerned. The same people who must pass on to the new employees the firm’s objectives, methods and procedures, and share with them the daily workload.
The firm’s motto, which encourages and motivates the staff is written on a piece of paper on the wall of the “solutions area” office and reads: “the worst crime of all is not failing, it is not trying”
In this way we have formed a motivated and cohesive group of people which supports one another and self improves day after day. This is why after a few years of development, our staff are able to successfully take on roles involving considerable responsibility.
The sales manager is 37 years old, her colleague in 35, the purchasing manager is 37, the storehouse manager is 33, while the internet support manager is 26.
Reasons for success
When Idrobase advertises its products on the world market, no intermediaries are used. Sales agents, area managers, inspectors, (normally variable cost) are substituted by Idrobase’s own staff (fix cost). In the world of high pressure washers, where the agents are middle aged men with a substantial technical knowledge of the product, we rely on a young Team which looks upon the female component (7 female language graduates, with no specific technical training).
Compared with tradition, this female component is the most different. Throughout the world, we are the only company in our field that has handed distribution over entirely to women. What is interesting is that our clients, whom are mostly men, describe this service as better than that provided by the traditional male seller of technical products.
To support our sales effort, we have five business to business e-commerce sites (http://www.idrobase.com, http://www.sparesclub.com, http://www.idrotech.com, http://www.perfectcool.it and http://www.hydroeast.cn) and a website giving general information on managing, repairing, and manufacturing our machines (http://www.allforclean.com). Our dealers are on our websites.
Contact with our most important customers and suppliers is managed through one-2-one videoconference.
30% of our customers pay by credit card, making us the only business in our field in Europe which uses this effective method to manage payments coming from abroad. Payment by this method is faster and more secure than the standard credit letter or up front payment by bank transfer.
Marketing and research into new products, markets and sub-suppliers is based on the systematic use of non invasive telemarketing. It is through telemarketing that we continuously conduct studies in order to monitor changes and trends in the market. This also allows us to verify on a regular basis the level of satisfaction of our customers and how attractive our old and new products and solutions are.
Zoning (Italian and foreign headquaters and branches)
Idrobase, its Club dei Riparatori division, Idrotech and Perfect Cool are situated in a new industrial building of 3.700 m², with offices 450 m² together in length.
Hydroeast in China is situated in a building of 900 m² in size in the city of Xinchang, around 150 km south of Shanghai.
Idrobase’s representative office is open since June 2006 in a brand new building in Shanghai’s city centre.
Accounts / turnover
Turnover, and more importantly company performance, reflect the company’s health.
The total turnover of 2008 is 6.6 millions euros.
Export markets: products/services
We export to more than 66 developed and developing countries throughout the world, from China to the USA and from Norway to Argentina.
Share of exports as a percentage of total production: 75%
Distribution strategy
The key to success, in our opinion, is reinforcing our brand name, distributing our products in far away countries through sales outlets directly controlled by us. By using our marketing and strategic supports, these sales outlets will propose our products and solutions to the customer (manufacturers, dealers, repairers of high pressure washers and fogging systems). Working alone in various countries however is difficult, which is why we have decided to invest in the capital stock of other companies. We have joined in consortium with both manufacturers and distributors, joining forces with other players in the market.
Consortium
Idrobase is a member of a consortium of small and medium sized entrepreneurs: Italian Cleaning Manufacturers Team, a consortium founded in 2004 and which is composed of 9 manufacturers of industrial cleaning equipment. The firms are not in competition with one another and the aim of the consortium is to promote the products of its members in developing countries.
Positive factors
Our way of approaching the market allows us:
 "We are changing the rules of the pressure water market" |
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 Idrobase Srl |
 Club dei Riparatori |
 Perfect Cool srl |
 Idrotech srl |
Idrotech Quality assured firm
