FORMAN Service Center: results and prospects

Service in the construction industry is also expanding its borders, and manufacturers of building materials are looking for new ways to communicate and expand sales. Sergey Kildyushev, Sales and Marketing Director of SGC CJSC, and Semyon Kononenko, Head of the Service Center, answered our questions about the functions of the FORMAN service center, its effectiveness and ways of further development.

Main tasks of the service center

The appearance of the service center on the basis of SGC in 2012 was due to several factors at once. First, as a manufacturer, we are interested in promoting dry building mixes TM FORMAN, and for this it is necessary to clearly show, and in some cases prove, the advantages of the product. A service center is an opportunity to demonstrate to a potential consumer all the advantages of a product and the capabilities of new technologies, the most important advantages of which are the speed and quality of work. Secondly, being in contact with the builders, we provide constant feedback. Third, the creation of the center was dictated by the market situation. In Europe, the trend is that 90% of plastering works are done by machine. Even private teams working on sites with an area of up to 300 square meters do not level the surfaces manually. And the Russian market is actively moving in this direction.

How interesting is mechanization in today's construction market?

If we talk about the development of mechanization in general, then in each region it is different, often polar: in some regions of the Russian Federation it is very developed, a wide range of stations is represented — from simple to the most complex, in others interest in it is just beginning to awaken. The Samara region is somewhere in the middle. Today, there are about 15 machine-drawing stations in the city. In particular, our partners, the construction company "Novy Don", LLC "Master" Koshelev project, LLC "Veri +" use them at all their facilities. Nevertheless, 15 stations are catastrophically small in comparison with the volumes of commissioning that are taking place.
Builders are always faced with a dilemma: For some, speed is important, while others are willing to sacrifice it in order to gain an illusory price advantage, because the purchase of SMN implies investments. However, if we evaluate the effect of using a machine-applied station in the time range, then in exactly one month it fully pays off and in the future brings much more profit than manual work, reducing the cost of work and thereby reducing the total cost per square meter. What the consumer is ultimately interested in. This is the main advantage of mechanization, and that is why this direction will continue to develop.

Service center today

Now we have all the necessary technical base to solve the announced tasks. Of course, this is our own exhibition center, which allows you to buy or rent a machine application station, get advice, and quickly purchase spare parts. Today we have offers from three leading manufacturers of SMN from Germany and Poland, In addition, if the consumer has a desire to use any other model, we are also ready for this. Further, the service center includes a repair shop for SMN maintenance. In addition, the service center must be mobile, so we purchased a car that allows technical specialists to go to construction sites to solve various tasks — training, diagnostics,and routine inspections of SMN. And of course, the basis of the service center is employees who received their competencies from the largest manufacturers of SMN, completed an internship in Moscow, and know all the subtleties and features of working with compositions for machine application.
Today we can say that the service center perfectly complements the advantages of our brand. In 2 years, 8 machine drawing stations were sold. Sales volume of dry building mixes TM FORMAN for machine application is steadily growing.

Main competitive advantages of SGK service center

In order for the SMN to have an effect, it must work constantly. However, crashes and breakdowns are inevitable. Therefore, it is very important to have access to consumables. And our customers, who used to have to wait for spare parts for a month or more, now know that SGK has a sales center for consumables, and you can get what you need without additional orders within one or two days. This is a huge advantage.
Another advantage of our center is the response time to a request. To date, it is two days. Within two days, we are ready to go to the site, understand why the station is not working, conduct diagnostics, start it up, or exchange it for one that will continue to work within a week. This speed in the Samara market can not offer anyone else!
In addition, the center's specialists travel to any corner of the country where our products are used-both to show advantages and to resolve complaints. Usually, such visits are accompanied by a demonstration of work and training of builders. Because often the masters write off the problems that arise with the mechanical method of applying the product quality, while in fact they simply do not take into account many features of working with stations — such as water consumption, operating mode, etc. After all, as with any technical means, the SMN must be monitored, negligent or inept handling can lead to serious breakdowns. But even these cases are eliminated as quickly as possible at construction sites. Where this cannot be done locally, we take the station away for repairs.

TM FORMAN product range for machine application

To date, these are three plasters-FORMAN No. 01, 12, 14. We also develop the culture of applying self-leveling floors using SMN.
We can rightly be proud of the fact that our products work very well with SMN, as evidenced by the tests of manufacturers of machine application stations. All manufacturers whose stations we represent passed our dry mixes through their equipment and gave positive conclusions, which is confirmed by official letters. Features of our products help to reduce the consumption of materials due to the fact that the Volga sand is better pumped, contains less abrasive composition and, as a result, our consumer saves on consumable parts.

Pricing policy in the new economic environment

SGC CJSC does not manipulate the situation and does not attempt to profit from it. All equipment purchased at the previous exchange rate will be sold at a fixed price. Of course, new purchases will already be affected by the exchange rate jumps. But we will look for ways to support our partners as much as possible. In particular, today we have a special offer: when purchasing TM FORMAN products for machine application, a screw pair is a gift. It is very profitable for the consumer to get free consumables for the volume corresponding to the consumption of 1 screw pair.

Development plans

As practice shows, interest in mechanization is growing: in the first year of the service center's existence, three machine — drawing stations were sold, and in the second year, five were already sold. And in the future, we intend to increase sales of both SMN and dry building mixes for machine application. Of course, the service center plans to expand its product range. We have recently launched a program to sell professional construction tools, as well as electrical equipment for finishing plastered or prepared surfaces. We are improving our competencies. And very soon, the specialists of SGK CJSC will start holding regular seminars on working with SMN for large construction companies, as well as for private teams.