Interview to Ana Arce, director of International and Innovation of Fenin, Spanish Federation of Companies of Sanitary ware Technology
Fenin Groups to some 1.200 companies, of which 520 are manufacturers, according to his data of 2011. We are speaking of SMEs or big companies?
Mainly are SMEs, in 80% roughly. This sector is formed by big quantity of small and medium enterprises.
This situation, has supposed a hándicap or an advantage to the hour to compete so much in the Spanish market as in the international?
In the public field the aggregation of the demand by means of the centralisation of the buy of the sanitary ware technology that is llevar so much from the Autonomous Communities as from the General Administration of the State, through the platform of shopping centralised of the National System of Health, represent difficulties added for the access to the national market for the SMEs.
Is increasingly frequent that the public contests demand that the adjudicators supply big quantities of products to resupply to all the sanitary ware centres of one or several autonomous communities, appearance to the that only can answer the big companies with an important productive capacity but that supposes a barrier infranqueable for the SMEs whose capacity supply no always can attend this demand.
But the situation of the health deprived does not differ too much of the previous stage given the increase in the tendency of the gestión of shopping of sanitary ware technology by part of groups of several sanitary ware centres that impose conditions to the companies to which results complicated to access to the SMEs.
Regarding the national market, have to compete against big companies can be a hándicap. The main reasons can find in the difficulty to obtain financials that has a SME, bear the important morosidad that for the time being exists, although the forecasts are optimistic in this sense, adaptation to the different systems of purchase that pose from the different Autonomous Communities.
By the contrary, the Spanish SMEs are exporting and are increasing his figures of export of constant way from does years. Our SMEs are very competitive in the outside and although they also are suffering the consequences of the crisis mainly by the difficulty of access to the necessary financials to bear all the activity that carries implicit a process of internationalisation and by the reduction of the internal demand of a lot of countries, keep a successful tendency in the outside.
The main market of the sector is the service of public health?
Nevertheless the private sector has grown in the last years of important form because of the utilisation of formulas of private gestión of the health that result increasingly prevalentes, therefore, seems reasonable to foresee that the impact in the sales of the private sector increase notably in the last years.
Which percentage of the production in Spain allocates to the export?
The reason can find in the important crisis of the European Union, that has happened to represent almost 70% of our exports to 58% current. This circumstance, on the other hand, has improved the diversification of our exports, like this, although the EU keeps like our main destination, the Spanish companies have been able to position in all type of markets, with important growths in United States, Brazil, Japan, Korea, Arab Countries or Australia, country where porcentualmente, more has grown our export.
The diversification in the markets is attaining to keep our figures of export, and indicates that with the recovery of the EU, will go back to taxles of growth much higher put that our SMEs are showing his competitiveness, being able to grow in the international field in adverse moments.
And which percentage of sanitary ware technology matters ? Of which type of technology are speaking?
Nevertheless, are growing the imports of pertinent products of emergent countries like China, India and Brazil, had to fundamentally to the utilisation of the price like only criterion for the acquisition of sanitary ware technology, obviando appearances like the quality, services associated, etc. In spite of this increasing and worrisome tendency by the impact asistencial that it can have, the main countries of which Spain follows mattering are United States and countries of the European Union such like France, Germany, Italy and Portugal.
In the coyuntura current, which are the segments that are 'throwing' more than the car?
Nevertheless there are other powerful sectors as they are the one of diagnostic in vitro, electromedicina or dental.
The internationalisation has gone very tied to the increase of the demand in the external market. Which relation establishes between provider and demandante?
Here it goes in at stake the bet by the innovation. According to data published recently by Fenin, his companies devote of the 6 to 7% of the turnover to the R&D. Where it puts more the accent to the hour of innovar?
Equally the study puts of self-evident that the most innovative companies are much more opened to the cooperation with the rest of agents of the system, like the own buyer, the technology centres, universities, hospitals, etc., looking for these more suitable solutions, in some surroundings that call of ‘Open Innovation' or open innovation.