Back

News

Company

Duravit wins the “race” in Abu Dhabi

In future, Formula 1 will be stopping off in a second Arab country: for an initial seven years from 2009, Abu Dhabi will host a Grand Prix race as part of the Formula 1 World Championship.
This means that Formula 1 is now an attraction richer. The racetrack was designed by the famous Formula 1 racetrack architect, Herman Tilke, and is located on the offshore Yas Island, one of the largest natural islands off the coast of Abu Dhabi. The building work is already underway and, according to the head of organisation, Richard Cregan, is well on schedule. The season finale will take place on the new track in Abu Dhabi on 1 November. The effects of this building work are being felt as far away as Germany or, to be more precise, in the Black Forest. Bathroom manufacturer Duravit with headquarters in Hornberg is installing its products in the Formula 1 sanitary areas – this includes everything from the common area and the VIP area to the ID area that, in this case, stands for the Interior Design area. To fulfil this order, the Hornberg-based manufacturer is delivering more than 1,370 individual items to Abu Dhabi, ranging from wall-mounted WCs to towel holders.

Pioneering design classics

The builders of the racetrack are drawing upon the expertise of a German manufacturer who already has more than 190 years of experience with ceramics and who, in the last 20 years, has made an international name for itself in the field of bathroom design thanks to its cooperation with high-profile designers, such as Philippe Starck, Sieger Design, Norman Foster, Phoenix Design, Massimo Iosa Ghini and Eoos. These cooperations have given rise to more than 40 projects, which Duravit now distributes to more than 90 countries in the world. The order from the builder of the Abu Dhabi racetrack mainly involves the Vero, Architec and Starck 3 design ranges. Duravit also delivered twelve “barrels”. The “barrel” is a conical vanity unit designed as many as 15 years ago for Duravit by the designer Philippe Starck and that, over the years, has become the best-selling item of furniture in the Duravit range. The ISH is the world’s leading trade fair in its field and Duravit premiered this design classic in high-gloss black and white at this year’s ISH in Frankfurt in March; the new look obviously caught the eye of Formula 1: the shimmering white barrels will be real eye-catchers in the new Formula 1 areas. The “barrels” are made in Duravit’s furniture factory in Schenkenzell in the Black Forest. Duravit made large investments there only last year and, in response to the positive order situation, extended the production areas by about a third. The project managers were also particularly enamoured with the “Scola” washbasin. This washbasin was originally designed more than 30 years ago with a view to schools and kindergartens and offered sufficient room for a water bucket and blackboard eraser.
Today, on the strengths of its pure form, Scola is completely at home in many design projects. Its timeless combination of the rectangular and round form was the deciding factor for Formula 1. A Philippe Starck design, this time the Starck 3 range, was chosen for the barrier-free sanitary areas.

Quality and honesty as the deciding factors

According to Duravit management board chairman Franz Kook, “design paired with high quality” is the key factor behind Duravit’s success in the “race” for Formula 1. However, at the end of the day, the medium-sized company has to thank its local sales network for the contract award. At the end of 2001, Duravit opened its own office in Beirut and gradually built up a local sales network. To further improve local support for the dealers, a further office in Dubai followed in 2006. This enabled the company to continue to achieve a two-figure growth in the region and, at the same time, gain important experience in getting to grips with the local culture. Kook believes that developing trust is the most important aspect of this. “Experience has continued to show that, in this region, it is extremely important to have a personal contact person”, explained the chairman. Business decisions are based on personal trust. Customers seek ongoing contact with a single individual and spend a lot of time building up a relationship of trust with this individual. This requires a great deal of endurance and patience from the company. The first Formula 1 talks took place as early as 2007. “Whilst developing this trust, honesty was an absolute must”, explains Kook: “Whenever we said anything, we always made sure we were looking our partners straight in the eye. You always have to be open, even if it sometimes means hearing a no.”

Product availability and the gift of poetry

Another advantage when competing for this order was the good product availability ensured by Duravit’s factory in Egypt even though, initially, this wasn’t necessarily an advantage since Egyptian products are not regarded particularly highly in the Middle East. Consequently, the company first had to launch an information campaign and demonstrate that the same high quality standard applies at all of the ten production sites all over the world. Last but not least, the nationality of the employees who made contact with the project managers was also a key factor. Duravit has often found that nationality plays a greater role in business relationships there than religion, for example, and it benefits from having two Lebanese employees who are at the top of Duravit Middle East. Visits from German employees from the company headquarters are welcome, plus activators. Overall, however, Kook believes that it’s not just about nationality but about “speaking the right language”. By this he means not only Arabic but also the general ability “to use simple stories to explain the way things are”. Kook: “People there aren’t so much in love with the details, rather they like to have things expressed in a slightly more descriptive language.” That’s why the Duravit people working in the Middle East not only have to have all the technical facts at their fingertips, they also have to have the “gift of poetry”. When visiting their colleagues in the Black Forest, they like to tell how many ways there are of saying just good morning in Arabic: “Morning of the rose or morning of the gentle winds” are just two of many examples. This “poetic approach” allows the company to hope that the brand new PuraVida range that it launched in March of this year will be successful there. It is to introduce a “new poetry of lightness” into the bathroom.

Overall, the Duravit Group recorded total sales to third parties of 335 million Euros in 2008. It currently has more than 5,400 employees worldwide.

« Back to overview