During the period of The 24th China International Furniture Expo, JJGLE.COM interviews high-end coating supplier- Teknos Treffert. Strategic and commercial director-Marcel Dissel, executive general manager-Jacky Cheng and sales director-Steven Liu from industrial wood department of Teknos Treffert are interviewed.

Teknos appears at Furniture China Fair with its recommended products for the first time after merger and acquisition of Feyco Treffert. For acquisition of this time, Mr. Marcel says that after the merger of Teknos and Feyco Treffert, Teknos becomes an industry giant with the history of over 100 years and total assets of over EUR 0.4 billion. Former president of Teknos -Ms. Paula Salastie becomes new CEO of Teknos Treffert and takes charge of operation and long-term strategy planning for the company.

Marcel says that union of above-mentioned two companies involves both recombination of product line to form the coating kingdom integrating indoor and outdoor products and integration of markets in Europe, America, Russia and China by respective advantages to create more extensive distribution channels for company's business.

 JJGLE: In the former years, your company took part in the exhibition with the name of “Feyco Treffert”which changes to “Teknos Treffert”, can you explain the relation between these two names?

Mr Marcel Dissel: Teknos is a leading industrial coating supplier in Europe and one of the largest family firms in Finland was established in 1948 and has a history of nearly 70 years up to now. Now, CEO of Teknos is the third family successor-Paula Salastie. Paula is very young and is at the age of less than 40, but she is very impassioned. She formally takes over Teknos in Feb. of last year, participates in decision making and operation of the whole company and is chosen as annual entrepreneur in Netherland by the authoritative institution.

Teknos is in possession of 1,700 employees and establishes factories in 11 countries and regions. Its business involves three parts: metallic paint, carpentry paint coating and architectural coating with its products sold to 20 countries and regions around the world. Feyco Treffert has a longer history, and has a history of more than 150 years in the field of carpentry paint coating and is absorbed in innovation and personalized solution of UV, water-based and carpentry maintenance products.

In May 2017, Teknos acquires Feyco Treffert, becomes a transnational and transregional carpentry coating company with business spreading over Europe, Asia and America, namely Teknos Treffert.

JJGLE: At the time of looking forward to the future, what kind of plan and adjustment will be conducted for strategic layout of Teknos Treffert?
 
Mr Marcel Dissel: Teknos pays more attention to outdoor architecture and wall surface, while Feyco Treffert has an advantage of floor and furniture, namely indoor coating maintenance; Teknos mainly concentrates on markets in Northern Europe, Central Europe and Russia, while Feyco Treffert has an advantage in markets of Asia, America and Western Europe.

Considering the differences in terms of products and sales channel, union of above-mentioned two companies involves both recombination of product line to form the coating kingdom integrating indoor and outdoor products and integration of markets in Europe, America, Russia and China by respective advantages to create more extensive distribution channels for company's business.

The turnover of Teknos is EUR 0.32 billion, plus about EUR 72 million of Feyco Treffert, now we almost become a company with turnover of EUR 0.4 billion. Industrial carpentry paint business accounts for EUR 0.2 billion of in turnover. In the next five years, our goal and development strategy are to globally rank the third in the field of carpentry. We hope that we can consolidate the goal of "globally ranking the third" and even surpass the goal by means of merger and above two companies complementing each other's advantages. 
  
JJGLE: What's emphasis of Teknos Treffert in industrial wood business in the next half year of this year and next year?

Mr Marcel Dissel: Basically, innovation in five fields will arise with product characteristics formed.

1 New fireproof and flame-resistant coating. Originally, fire-proof material needs internal filling, whose cost will become very high in case of soakage. While this product is easy for construction whose cost is easy to be controlled.

2 Based on special requirement of China's market, research and development of the product which is able to replace solvent-based paint, such as water-based paint of the furniture replacing oil paint of the furniture, can better conform to China's market and better meet the standard of environmental protection.

3 UV paint, water-based UV paint and related UV field.

4 Innovative products, such as UV box putty. Now forest resources become less and less, and the quality of the wood becomes lower and lower. The product can be used to the timber with relatively low quality for the sake of enhancing quality. 

5 Industrialized and personalized production closely cooperate with large machine manufacturers and print patterns desired by consumers onto the desk, chain, etc. by means of digital printing technology so as to meet consumers' personalized demand. 

JJGLE: You are appointed as executive director of Teknos and Teknos Treffert in China in July of this year. Wwhat are primary concerns of your next work? Is there any adjustment plan for direction of the business in China?

Mr Jacky Cheng: I formally hold the post of executive general manager in China on July 12. After such appointment, the main work is merger. Pursuant to the development objective of carpentry paint in China from the Group:

First: We need to integrate carpentry coating, including integration of organizational structure and distribution channel. We hope to achieve the effect of 1+1=2 by integration of the above two parts.

Before failure in merger and acquisition of Feyco Treffert, 95% products sold by Teknos are UV products with 5%-10% being furniture or indoor carpentry paint. In China, 95% of main sold products of Teknos are outdoor carpentry paints with 5%-10% being indoor carpentry paints. Now, by sales integration, our sales business may contain more products, including products sold well before as well as five innovative products just mentioned by Marcel. Our sales will become mightier.
 
Completing integration of sales channel and bringing more products with higher quality to customers are goals to be achieved within a short time which is set to 3 months - 6 years.

What’s more, Integration of organizational structure, How to realize better integration of technology as well as research and development regarding original organizational structure and organizational structure after merger and acquisition.
Second: Integration of metallic paint, industrial carpentry paint coating and emulsion paint coating. 

In addition, we hope all things brought to customers won't hurt people and are environmentally friendly. Carpentry paints such as water-based pain and UV are environmental protection materials. Besides industrial carpentry paint, our environmental protection concept will extend to construction paint, namely emulsion paint. 100% paints sold by Teknos are water-based emulsion paints and free from formaldehydes. Customers don't need to wait for three months or open windows for ventilation after decoration of the house is complete and the above paint is completely environmentally friendly.

In the future, we hope that customers can find all things needed by them in one store, and such things are completely environmentally friendly. For example, emulsion paints include emulsion paint reaching to practice guideline, antibacterial emulsion paint, and emulsion paint with prevention of asthma and allergy free emulsion paint which pass certification of NORIC. Certification of NORIC is the most demanding certification in the world, including environmental certification and certification for experimenting on human being.

JJGLE: As a family firm, what kind of product is the one Teknos want most to provide to customers? What's the core of enterprise culture?

Firstly, we will provide customers with creative products forever, such as five innovative products just mentioned by Marcel.  We won't persist in existing products, and will provide imaginative and creative products for customers.
 
Secondly, the history of Teknos added by the history of Feyco Treffert exceeds one hundred years, thus we provide customers with durable and sustainable products. We won't sell one product here and won't sell it in another place tomorrow.

Last, the core of enterprise culture of Teknos is equality-equitable to our terminal customers. What's equality? Terminal customers' rights and interests are guaranteed, and we won't sell any flaw, sub-quality products, or low-grade paint coating, incurring loss to customers' rights and interests. We ensure that customers are equally treated in the market because products provided by us are really certified by authority with commitment corresponding to human health and environmental protection. 

JJGLE: What new products and star products Teknos Treffert present in the exhibition? What are technical innovations of these new products? 
 

Mr Steven Liu: We bring two kinds of products after merger of Teknos and Feyco Treffert.

The first kind of product is environmental water-based paint which has been developed by Feyco Treffert before and applies to household industry, including the latest one-component and two-component ones with better mechanical property, fullness and surface expressive force provided.
   
Furthermore, we also push out some special processes, such as modelling paint, which provide customers with better choices.

It's hoped that these products launched can better lead customers in the household industry to change to select water-based coating from solvent based coating, which is our indoor water-based paint solution in the aspect of furniture. As for outdoor products, Teknos is officially introduced to furniture exhibition for the firstly, and specially opens up the outdoor exhibition area with wall and home furniture well displayed.
 
Like fireproof products introduced by Marcel and Jacky, it's believed that these high-grade fireproof products can bring safer experience to customers. Fireproof treatment for the above products is different from that of traditional dipping coating, and fireproof treatment of traditional dipping coating refers to soaking the timber into the fire retardant which is time-consuming and costly. But now only surface treatment can reach the same fire prevention effect which is good news for the usage by customers.

In the meantime, we also introduce fireproof coating from Teknos used for outdoor buildings, such as garden and wooden building. There are some oil products which can provide better and more natural appearance to timber. They are products of Nordic style, and we hope that Chinese and Asian customers can accept and like such style.

(Source:jiagle.com)