General Director Alexander Vladimirovich Fetisov talks about the history of ESTIMA Ceramica and plans for the future.
Alexander Vladimirovich, ESTIMA Ceramica traces its history back to 2001, when the situation in the Russian economy, and especially in the industrial sector, was, to put it mildly, not easy. At that time, many of our entrepreneurs preferred to follow the path of least resistance and created various commercial structures. Why, at that difficult time, was it decided to launch our own production, and such a complex one at that, focused on the production of ceramic granite?
By the end of the 1990s, I already had some experience in organizing ceramic production, and at the same time I was lucky enough to meet Russian entrepreneurs, who by that time had managed to establish close partnerships with Italian manufacturers of finishing ceramic products and were successfully selling them in Russia. These people, who were convinced in practice that ceramic facing products were in demand in Russia, believed that it was necessary to create their own production in our country. Thus, the idea of organizing a Russian enterprise to produce ceramic tiles was already in the air. The final choice of the place where the industrial enterprise was to be organized fell on Noginsk near Moscow. There was an almost idle concrete concrete plant, which, however, retained all the transport and engineering infrastructure necessary for production.
The choice of technology was never a question, since Italy, then and now, is the absolute world leader in the ceramic industry. Based on previously established contacts with the Italian side, we quickly received an offer to locate technological facilities at the site we had chosen in Noginsk, and at the end of 1999, construction of the first stage of the plant began. And in April 2001, the production part of the ESTIMA Ceramica company was born - then the first batch of porcelain tiles under the ESTIMA brand was released.
Why, after all, did you choose to organize the production of porcelain stoneware?
The answer to this question lies in its performance characteristics. What is so interesting about the material, which is popularly called porcelain stoneware? In general, this name misleads many people: they believe that porcelain stoneware is a mixture of granite chips with ceramic mass, which, of course, is not true. The essence and properties of this material are most accurately reflected by its native Italian name - gresporcellanato, where gres is a vitrified (vetrified) non-porous material, and the word porcellanato indicates its obvious relationship with porcelain. Indeed, what we call porcelain stoneware differs little in composition from true porcelain.
During the production of porcelain stoneware, as a result of all technological transformations, the molding mass produces tiles with almost zero water absorption, which is extremely important when using cladding in the climatic conditions of our country - the tiles do not absorb moisture and do not collapse at low temperatures. This is the fundamental difference between porcelain stoneware and conventional ceramics with a porous structure. This also explains the constant and consistently high demand for porcelain stoneware in the domestic construction industry.
What difficulties did you have to overcome during the establishment of the enterprise?
First of all, it should be noted that our plant was created almost from scratch. There were some labor resources preserved from the former reinforced concrete plant, but all this had nothing to do with ceramic production. However, an even bigger problem was that we had to assemble and train a team so that people could service the most advanced technological equipment for that time, supplied from Italy. Here difficulties were encountered literally at every step: complex electronics, complex mechanics, in general the technology itself is very, very difficult. At the same time, the task was to maintain the level of product quality that we had determined from the very beginning. We decided to produce products that must meet the highest international standards and under no circumstances lower the quality bar, but only raise it higher.
This leads to one feature of our company: constant movement forward. As mentioned earlier, in 2001 we commissioned the first stage of the plant in Noginsk, and in 2004–2005 production volumes were doubled. In parallel with this, carefully monitoring and analyzing the most promising trends in the global ceramics industry, we constantly improved technology and acquired additional equipment. Carrying out such a policy can hardly be considered our advantage, because many of our friends and competitors are also confidently moving in this direction. Another thing is that, having once chosen this concept of enterprise development, we have always strictly followed it and still consider it a priority in our activities.
How did Russian consumers react to the first appearance of ESTIMA Ceramica products on the domestic market?
Historically, there was a shortage of facing ceramics, especially floor tiles of this kind and quality, in Russia. Even before creating our own ceramic production, we imported ceramic granite from abroad to our country. At the same time, despite the demand for this material among those who were well acquainted with it before, not everyone could use it due to the higher cost of imports. In addition, there were many consumers who did not see the fundamental difference between ceramic and porcelain tiles and did not understand how to properly lay porcelain tiles. Therefore, we had to do a lot of work aimed at promoting the new material on the domestic market. As a result, by the time the first stage of the plant in Noginsk was launched, we were able to develop a distribution network and were able to properly organize sales of ESTIMA brand porcelain tiles in Russia. By the way, work in this direction continues to this day.
What other major milestones in the history of ESTIMA Ceramica, besides those listed, could you name?
Continuing the story about the main stages of development of the ESTIMA Ceramica company, it is necessary to remember that in 2010 it was understood that our existing technological capabilities were clearly not enough, and simply put, the market did not have enough of our products. This influenced the decision to open another production facility in Samara. In addition, I would like to note that when approving the company’s annual budget, a certain part of it is necessarily aimed at technological increments at our enterprises. On the one hand, this is a common practice, on the other hand, if we look at the global trends that determine changes in the consumer properties of porcelain stoneware, then undoubted progress is obvious in our company’s assortment policy.
We first introduced porcelain tiles, known in our country as salt and pepper, to the market. And to this day, whether we like it or not, we produce such tiles because the domestic market demands it - not all regions of Russia today can afford to use other, more expensive cladding. Over time, building on salt and pepper, we began to produce tiles with more complex and expressive visual effects. Then polished porcelain tiles appeared in the ESTIMA Ceramica assortment - this was a noticeable technological breakthrough for us, which required certain investments in production, personnel training, and the development of other techniques for decorating tiles within the framework of the new technology.
It turns out that for the ESTIMA Ceramica company, every year can be considered a milestone, since certain technological innovations are constantly being introduced into our production, the capabilities of which are immediately manifested in new tile collections or as an addition to existing ones. Here are some examples: almost 7 years ago we mastered the technology for producing glazed tiles, and this is a reflection of the global trend that had just emerged at that time. A little later, Digital print technology appeared in Italy, which makes it possible to apply any printed image to the surface of the tile, up to a completely convincing reproduction of the paintings of the old masters, and we were among the few global porcelain tile manufacturers who were the first to purchase this equipment. Now we already have several such installations in our technological arsenal. These innovations, in turn, required the involvement of specialists at a completely different level in the production process: they must work confidently in Adobe Photoshop and other special graphics programs, be able to choose the right ceramic pigments before firing the tiles, because pigments only acquire their true color and tone after exposure to high temperature and so on.
Regarding marketing policy, we can say that over the past one and a half to two years we have had good prospects in the global market. ESTIMA Ceramica products are already purchased in 50 countries located in North, Central and South America; Northern, Western and Eastern Europe; South-East Asia; in the Middle and Far East; in Central Asia and the African continent. We hope that the geography of our supplies abroad will only expand. Such a successful promotion of our tiles around the world can be explained, among other things, by our active exhibition policy. Our company is a regular participant in all major international industry forums. And here’s what’s interesting: when you compare our products at exhibitions with what large foreign manufacturers show, you cannot notice any obvious differences.
What new global trends in the field of porcelain stoneware production do you consider the most interesting and important?
Perhaps this is the passion of some large manufacturers for the production of large format tiles, for example 240x180 cm. Our company produces tiles of the maximum size 120x60 cm. I believe that in the near future we will not move to the production of larger format porcelain tiles, because for another 3-4 years in Russia it is unlikely to be in demand. In order to satisfy the need of the Russian market for 120x60 cm porcelain stoneware, this year we invested about 500 million rubles in expanding the technological line producing slabs of this particular format. Such modernization has already taken place at the plant in Noginsk and by the end of 2016 it will be completed at the plant in Samara. That is, both enterprises will be focused on increasing the output of these products.
Should we say that the company ESTIMA Ceramica, whose factories use Italian technologies and equipment, today competes with porcelain tile manufacturers from Italy?
Frankly speaking, there was a period in our relations with the Italians when they were obviously reluctant to reveal their technological secrets to us. But when our contacts with Italian partners strengthened and acquired a stable focus on long-term interaction, this mistrust passed. Second. You need to understand that we do not cooperate with those Italian companies that produce porcelain stoneware, but with others that produce technological equipment for the serial production of this material. It is quite clear that developers and manufacturers of technological equipment need to sell their products, and to whom it does not matter to them. In addition, there are companies in Italy interested in providing services to industrialists. For example, a company developing the already mentioned Digital print technology provides us with consumables for its printing equipment, promising options for decorative solutions for future collections, and so on. In this case, the Italians are interested in implementing their own project proposals, and who does it is not so important.
It should also be taken into account that a fairly large segment of the market serving the ceramics industry is occupied by the supply of raw materials - glazes, inks for printing machines, etc. Such suppliers strive to establish reliable and long-term business relationships with ceramic industry enterprises. Therefore, as a rule, no contradictions arise between us and our Italian partners.
Is it possible today to predict that in the near future the production of ceramic granite will follow the path of giving this material new, previously unprecedented technical characteristics?
The production of porcelain was not invented by us, its history goes back many hundreds of years, and introducing something new into the formulation of the molding mass and its firing in order to give the finished product some utilitarian-functional qualities that were not previously characteristic of it is hardly possible, at least in the foreseeable future . Another thing is the technological equipment of ceramic production. Here's an example: in 1991, I had to deal with Italian pressing equipment with a specific pressure on the molding mass of 680 tons. Now presses develop a specific pressure of 7000 tons! At the same time, the mass of a traditional press, depending on the force it develops and the format of the tile, can exceed 250 tons. Not to mention the huge metal consumption and, accordingly, the price of such equipment, many problems arise with its transportation, installation, preventive maintenance, and so on. Therefore, in our time, conventional presses are being replaced by equipment that operates on a completely different principle, when the molding mass is passed through rollers. Thanks to this, it is possible to regulate the specific pressure without increasing the metal consumption and weight of the machine. These days, other technological equipment used in the production of porcelain tiles is subject to the same revision. This is the dominant trend in this area today.
What's the next step? – it’s difficult to predict, as in 2001, when we built the first production line in Noginsk, no one could have foreseen that just over 10 years later there would be a demand for glazed porcelain tiles, and with it the corresponding technological equipment. At that time, it seemed to everyone that glazed porcelain tiles were from the Stone Age, but not much time passed, and we were all once again convinced that “the new is the well-forgotten old.” I think that in the future we will see a return to previous values. Be that as it may, stagnant processes in the production of porcelain stoneware are not expected in the foreseeable future, and if so, then the ESTIMA Ceramica company will follow the path of further development.
Source: Publishing House Construction Expert .