E/D/E trademarks
The E/D/E trademarks are an important element of our price and product range management. Members benefit from the association’s expertise in product purchasing, product range design, branding and distribution.
Strong brands, smart concepts: Sales in transition
E/D/E supports the industrial B2B sector with powerful sales concepts and trademarks. Thanks to our offerings, members can set themselves apart from the competition while also benefiting from our professional expertise in the areas of product procurement, portfolio design, branding and sales.
Strengthen customer loyalty, tap sales potential
E/D/E trademarks enable members to enhance their product ranges in a useful and appealing manner. Some of the established brands are marketed exclusively through sales groups in E/D/E and include a broad product portfolio in each of the various product groups. We continuously optimise our trademarks in terms of their range, marketing, digital presence, and distribution – always in close consultation with our members. By strengthening our own brands, we also continue to address the challenges of inventory availability.
The FORMAT trademark developed well in 2022 in the areas of tools, PPE and factory equipment. In the area of building services, we are continuously expanding the ownbrand share of the FORMAT umbrella brand at all WUPPER-RING dealers. Further internationalisation of the E-COLL EFFICIENT LINE for the E-COLL trademark in the chemical-technical trade sector was on the agenda. For this purpose, the range for Eastern Europe and Spain was expanded in 2022. The brand is now established in more than 29 countries. The sales volume of FORTIS tools almost doubled compared to the previous year. We were able to expand the presence of the FORTIS PPE brand in Europe, particularly in Poland and the Benelux countries. The brand focus in the construction equipment segment is proving successful and encourages us to push ahead with it in 2023. While the FORMAT brand is being discontinued in this segment, we are expanding the FORTIS brand to include other product groups from the construction equipment sector. The website “fortis-tools.com” was launched at the beginning of 2022. Prospective customers can now get a comprehensive overview of the trademark and find dealers near them. Initially, the website is only available in German, but other language versions will follow. Since November 2022, information on the extensive range of trademarks for the FORUM brand, which is established in the HANDWERKSTADT and UNION sales concepts, has also been available online at www.forum-tools.com.
Using the opportunities of digitalisation in marketing
E/D/E has set the course for digital transformation in marketing and sales with comprehensive activities. We made the Marketingportal service accessible to all members in 2022, after it had already been successfully introduced and tested for members of the PLUS1 and HANDWERKSTADT sales concepts in 2021. With this, we have created the possibility for all members to quickly and easily create individualproduct flyers online and offline. Our publication ordering portal has been optimised once more, making ordering easier and even less error-prone. Added to this are advantages such as the ability to place orders regardless of location and time.
Independent online presences including a wide range of product information have been established for all E/D/E trademarks.
Handelsmarken
Vertriebskonzepte
The digitalisation trend and increased publication prices in 2022 due to rising paper prices and production costs are leading to a gradual switch to digital solutions and concepts. The use of print media is being reduced accordingly. Even though printed catalogues remain relevant in the E/D/E network, we are increasingly using digital sales channels. For our retail brand FORMAT, we have further strengthened content marketing in the various social media formats, as well as online portals. For retail, we will be producing the advertising supplement in electronic form for the first time for the dealers of the WERKMARKT distribution system as of summer of 2023. This means more flexibility for our members, as content can be individually designed with location-based assortment and product focuses. By distributing the supplement increasingly via social media and online portals, we are expanding the reach. Since the beginning of 2022, the WERKMARKT standard supplement has already been made available on the members’ Facebook accounts and electronically as a gazette publication.
Strong together in the market – thanks to sophisticated sales concepts
Both E/D/E members and contract suppliers benefit from the joint sales concepts in the association: members can increase their expertise, optimise their marketing and improve their competitiveness, while contract suppliers benefit from precisely fitting service relationships. All sales concepts are tailored to customer needs and include agreements with suppliers, target-group-oriented marketing, data management, training measures and the professional design of sales floors. Our work involved in these concepts varies depending on the specialist group, target group, product range and local focus. There are long-established collaborations and exclusive trademarks in place, for example, in the PREMIUM, UNION and FAVORIT sales groups.New catalogues have been published for the UNION Tool, Power Tool and Factory Equipment sales concepts in 2022. For the UNION Tools catalogue, we have, for the first time, designed and offered an additional variant with an extended chapter for PPE. A plenary meeting with all UNION members was held in the spring of 2023. A sales forum is planned for early May 2023.
We also create added value in the construction sector through the specialist circles and competence groups.
- One focus of the Construction Equipment specialist group was to gear the warehouse range even more specifically to the construction industry. In order to improve the availability of goods, we are consistently working on forward-looking warehouse concepts and full-range processing. A large number of E/D/E partners thus benefited from optimum availability. The topic of product availability is also an important aspect in the design of the new construction equipment catalogue. We will further strengthen the modular catalogue concept in 2023. In addition, we are optimising the processes for purchasing small quantities from the central warehouse.
- Plumbing, Heating, and Air Conditioning Tools is a promising sales concept for opening up new growth areas for plumbing, heating, and air conditioning wholesalers. Among other things, members benefit from a specialist catalogue, customised training measures and comprehensive sales support in the form of key account management. In the sense of a one-stop shopping strategy, sanitary and heating installers can cover their needs from a single source through the familiar channels of their specialised trade. Almost 100 percent of the more than 7,000 items are permanently in stock at the E/D/E central warehouse eLC, and can be delivered within 24 hours.
- In plumbing, heating, and air conditioning wholesale, the digital bathroom assistant BADDY has been providing support in digital bathroom planning and quotation preparation since the spring of 2022. The application represents an essential digitalisation module of the building services division in E/D/E for WUPPER-RING members. Refined master data of the FORMAT trademark, as well as of roughly 60 brand suppliers, are available for individual consultation on mobile devices (Android and iOS) at any time.
- In 2022, the PRO.ELEMENT specialist group launched the PRO.ELEMENT Award in cooperation with the Fraunhofer BAU Alliance. We are looking for manufacturer ideas and projects that lead to more efficient processes and higher productivity in the construction elements sector. The jury comprises experts and consists of the Advisory Board of the PRO.ELEMENT expert group and Thomas Kirmayr, Managing Director of Fraunhofer-Allianz BAU. The new prize will be awarded every two years from 2024 as part of the E/D/E forum for building components.
- Meeting the requirements of the most diverse target groups, as well as the permanently changing market trends with a 360-degree view, are the goals of the PRO.ELEMENT expert group. It has four competence groups: the contract business, sun protection + façade, ELEMENTARES Services and the ELEMENTARES exhibition. The new specialist group ELEMENTec, founded in cooperation with the EBH AG, deals with additional future-oriented fields of action: it is aimed at distributors with a high level of competence in the areas of construction elements and fittings and optimises the convergence of both market fields. The expert group will form a new service area with specific content. Two competence groups are planned for the start: Door Engineering and Installer Safety Technology.
- With our EBH project SmartWorldPool, we want to facilitate the improved networking of the different trades and promote the exchange of knowledge and experience. In close cooperation with the craft sector and industry, EBH members’ experts develop the best solutions for the growth areas of smart home and smart building.
The area of PPE and technical trade also benefits from successful and intensive cooperation, dialogue formats and concepts:
- The FAVORIT Group achieved significant growth with almost all of its main suppliers. The ForSec trade brand developed strongly compared to the previous year. This is due, among other things, to the expansion of marketing activities in social media and on the brand’s homepage. In 2023, the FAVORIT Supplier Partner Conference will take place with a focus on industrial services and sustainability. In addition, the ForSec brand will present itself at the A+A.
- The PROTECTOR Group (PPE) has successfully expanded its cooperation with the E/D/E warehouse. The focus is on A-brands and the FORTIS trademark. In order to support the dealers of the PROTECTOR Group in an even more targeted manner, a Key Account Manager was hired in the spring of 2022 to provide comprehensive support for the trade partners and for training measures.
- In November 2022, we welcomed more than 300 participants to the sales forum PPE/Technical Trade in Dortmund. For the first time, we organised a joint forum for the two sectors. The visitors were thus offered a wide range of information and innovations. The positive feedback received from participants encourages us to further develop the event format into a central platform.
- As part of the marketing concept “TECHNIK kommt an”, the specialist group “Technical Trade” focused on the product areas of hose technology, sealing technology and compressed air technology/pneumatics in 2022, and developed various service brochures. The aim is to provide specialist knowledge and to highlight the importance, as well as the technical complexity and diversity, of these fields. The brochures flank the respective marketing campaigns. In the area of hose technology, the topic of mobile drinking water supply was promoted in selected publications (circulation > 50,000) throughout the year.
- In the HANDWERKSTADT and PLUS 1 WERKZEUG sales concepts, the turnover in 2022 was stable compared to the previous year. At the digital plenary meeting for the PLUS 1 sales group in spring of 2022, many new impulses were gathered for the expansion of service packages for digital marketing. In 2023, we are planning a major event with trade and industry for sales concepts close to the craft sector. This will be accompanied by targeted actions for the different user groups.
The rental business and the market volume in the E/D/E related sectors continue to grow. The megatrend “use instead of own” is increasingly being taken up by the trade. 2022 saw MIETEplus make progress on the scaling-up and development of further product segments. In order to promote the growth of MIETEplus, we have strengthened our responsible team in terms of personnel.
In 2022, the WUPPER-RING expanded the proven umbrella brand FORMAT and further improved its visibility. The fact that quality remains our top priority is underscored by this year’s Red Dot Award for smart and innovative products for our FORMAT Design 2.0 shower enclosures. With the marketing concept “Bäder sehen.planen.kaufen.”, the Building Services division is successfully supporting our members with a variety of efficient marketing measures.
In the area of supply networks/industrial services, we successfully launched the ECO-Consulting sales concept. We have developed this new service area in cooperation with the German Institute for Sustainability and Economics. The first successful round of workshops on sustainability issues and certification for trade have already been held. Our members can thus actively meet the growing requirements stemming from the area of sustainability, especially when participating in tenders. We expect demand for these advisory services to increase.
We have converted the E/D/E eFabrik into a digital experience of the MRO value chain, and thus are able to provide a special industrial B2B sector offer for further development. 37 sales workshops and over 40 customer meetings initiated a series of successful MRO follow-up projects. The eFabrik is just one example of the comprehensive activities with which E/D/E is setting the course for the digital transformation of the industrial B2B sector.