Permanently elastic

The job title on the business card is anything but ordinary, because Luc Thys heads both the marketing and the R&D departments at Soudal. This is the company's way of ensuring a close structural link between the two departments. At the same time, it highlights Soudal's journey from manufacturer to manufacturer with brand competence, because, as is well known at the headquarters in Turnhout in Belgium, brands only become established in the market through innovations.
The company went down this route years ago, says Thys, even though the products fall into the low-interest category. "The reason for this is that sealants have grown in importance in the context of low-energy buildings," adds Thys. Soudal's determination to pursue this path is evident from its commitment to brand development and greater expenditure on marketing due to its involvement in and sponsoring of cycling. Since the start of 2015 Soudal has been the main sponsor of the Lotto-Soudal professional German-Belgian cycling team.
Soudal is well established as a brand in the DIY sector. Harald Lüdtke, managing director of Soudal N.V. Germany, aims to raise the company's profile further with regard to the professional target groups in the building industry. "We have focused on developing systems and methods that span all trades and together with the installers we have developed solutions that simplify work sequences considerably. Since then we have been perceived in an entirely different light in the market."
Germany generates the most sales within the Soudal Group, with sales of € 65 mio in the DIY, professional installer and industrial sectors in 2014. Soudal has had a strong presence in DIY stores for many years with its yellow DIY range. In the high-tech industrial sector, Soudal is benefiting from the future trend towards the growing use of adhesive-bonded connections. Its blue product line for professionals also includes a host of new products, which are meeting with a good response from specialist contractors, according to Lüdtke.

The range has been designed so that installers can carry out all common bonding, sealing and insulating applications. Soudal's philosophy is "as many products as necessary, but as few as possible". In Lüdtke's opinion, both the retail trade and installers appreciate a clear basic range comprising a small…