N o . 8 4 – 0 6 / 2 0 1 7

More security through new methods

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A gateway to new worlds

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Time to talkp. 6-9

Courage

T h e N M C m a g a z i n e f o r e m p l o y e e s a n d b u s i n e s s p a r t n e r s

In our company, customer orientation, teamwork and employee participation are highly valued factors. Therefore cooperation with customers as well as our internal actions are constantly sup-ported by a We: We will succeed together: tackling tasks together, willingly taking responsibility and have the common goal in mind.

In view of the immense challenges, it is essential that supervi-sors coach, encourage and support their employees well, so that they can develop and bear responsibility for a common success. Executives must promote and support cooperation, especially in cross-departmental or cross-organisational pro-jects. In a complex and fast-moving time, goal-oriented project management is gaining in importance both internally and in close collaboration with its customers and suppliers. Taking a task within the team and evaluating it based on results requires, in addition to a good organisation, the right attitude: sense of proportion, foresight, a result-oriented pragmatic approach, faith in the shared success, trust in the colleagues and, ulti-mately, a lot of decision-making and courage.

Father Anselm Grün, Benedictine monk and management con-sultant, encourages us in his book “What do I want - the courage towards a decision” to trust in our ability to make the right choice, assume such attitude also in future projects and show the neces-sary courage to be evaluated depending on our words and results.

Your Hubert Bosten,CEO

Dear readers,

If we want to be happy and successful, be it in our profes-sional or private life, we have to live our convictions, make decisions and implement them in a targeted manner. This re-quires a good dose of courage, as one bears responsibility for the consequences for oneself and the others. The integration of the Baumann activities into the NMC Group and the new partnerships with Isocom in Russia and SELIT in Germany are also courageous entrepreneurial decisions. All participants are moving on unknown ground, have to adapt to new situations, must overcome a natural uncertainty, build trust and tackle the new challenge with optimism and ambition.

Entrepreneurship is always associated with courage and risk, This also applies to innovation. With CLIMAFLEX from NMC-Na-turefoam® we show courage and have converted a substantial part of our production to renewable raw materials. This is be-cause we are firmly convinced that manufacturing companies must and can do something about climate protection. With this decision, we still move into unknown areas and consequently also take on business risks: more than 350 items have been converted, being well aware that additional cost due to higher raw material prices will arise. We are continually working to improve productivity in order to balance such costs, although we will have to adjust prices according to inflation. Ultimately, NMC’s impact is low. However, together with customers, pro-cessors and end-users, we can do a lot to stop climate change and reduce CO2 emissions. Everyone can and should think about their daily life consumption’s behaviour and encourage themselves, family, friends, employees, end-users and business partners to actively contribute to climate protection.

E D I T O R I A L

"Everyone can and should think about their daily life consumption’s behaviour and

encourage themselves, family, friends, employees, end-users and

business partners to actively contribute to climate protection.“

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Life is a ten-meter spring board. The step forward re-quires courage – to risk something new, to plunge into cold water, to fall from a height. If the courage leaves us up there, we climb down bashfully.

Whether we dare a new attempt or give up the plan, it is a matter of our inner motivation. It shapes our whole life – both private and professional. The moment before the jump, reaching the edge with caution, the hesitant look into the abyss put our courage to the test: do we want to leave the safe ground, to cross the line lying before us? With a healthy self-assessment and solid self-confi-dence we feel strong enough, take another deep breath and jump. The pride about our courage, the joy over the flight-like moment and the adrenaline it has released make us get so high, that – even after a not too gentle belly flop – we will dare to do the next jump without hesitation.

This experience strengthens our back far beyond the swimming pool. Giving up what is familiar means leaving your comfort zone: venturing in acting differently from what others do or what you did before. Courage means saying No sometimes, intervening where injustice is done or taking an entirely new path. We see the risks, but if one’s does not dare to try, it can not win. If the step proves to be

Have courage!

wrong, we still have taken a chance – and gained valuable expe-rience about the way it doesn’t work and the possible reason for it.

Courage means taking up position, making decisions and thus making yourself vulnerable, risking mistakes or refusals. This re-quires the confidence that you are strong enough to also be able to endure refusal or failure. If our project goes wrong, we have to take the responsibility for it. If it works, it is our success – over our weaker self that wanted to prevent us from doing it, and in the matter itself. Success means appreciation. This in turn strength-ens our courageous determination, so that we accept the next challenge even more naturally. Courage also means not losing heart when setbacks occur, but rather believing in the personal skills, ideas and possibilities. In a crisis, perseverance is crucial for not getting discouraged. It is a proof of strength when you are able to admit weakness, to accept help or to get up again, after falling down, and valiantly start the next attempt. Courage has nothing to do with being a daredevil or with improperly un-derstood heroism. It is rather the driving force on a successful journey through life and the foundations for creatively shaping the future. So let us be brave and also encourage others to keep taking a chance on the ten-meter spring board of their life to jump into a beautiful new world.

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Time to talk ... As the name says, on DUOday working together is

the motto. For one day, companies welcome people with disabilities and give them the possibility to have a look at the daily work in company of an employee. NMC was this year, and for the first time, one of the participants.

Five volunteers, from as many departments, did not want to miss the opportunity of such experience: In addition to Manuela Drosson (Human Resources Department), there were also Dan-iela Brust (Analytical Accounting), Patrick Barth (Research & Development), Reiner Despineux (Automation) and Axel Dan-nemark (Methods & Industrialization) and each of them took a trainee under their wing. The framework conditions, the require-ments of the offered trainee positions and the mutual expecta-tions were clarified during preliminary talks with representatives of the Office for Self-determined Life of the German-speaking Community of Belgium (DSL) and the Economic and Social Council. The DUOday aims at both reducing reservations and at increasing the willingness of companies to train and to employ people with disabilities. The next step had Gabriele Fettweis and Lisa Baumgarten looking for the DSL candidates whose

abilities and interests were best suited with the proposed tasks; then they organised a short meeting to get to know each other before the, eagerly awaited, try-out day. Among others this meet-ing clarified what kind of support was required for the concerned trainees so that they could work well. About one month after the DUOday, the NMC employees involved, the two job coaches as well as the trainees Marcel Herzog and Robert Müllers an-swered the questions of the nmc-LIVE editors.

What prompted you to take part in DUOday?

Manuela Drosson: I generally like to share my job experience with trainees. In this regard I think that everyone has abilities and that impairments are certainly partially overrated. So, the spontaneous willingness to participate in DUOday was a natural thing for me.

Axel Dannemark: After reading the circular received from the human resources department I was instantly fascinated with the idea and immediately accepted it without much thinking.

Patrick Barth: I was just curious, because I believe you can certainly always learn something from other people.

Daniela Brust: In my department all colleagues were immedi-ately enthusiastic about the idea. So, on this day the trainee was not only with me, but also with my colleagues.

Marcel Herzog: I have done a career guidance and it has shown that technical tasks suit me. When you live around here, you know NMC of course. That‘s why I gladly used the DUOday to see what can be done in the technical division of such a company.

Robert Müllers: I am currently in a career guidance and don‘t really know yet what direction I want to take. So, this try-out day was certainly interesting.

Gabriele Fettweis: People are talking a lot about inclusion, but they cannot imagine what that is. The meaning of the day is to bring two people together. Then it becomes concrete and that is encouraging. What were the challenges of the DUOday for you?

Marcel Herzog: NMC is not exactly a small company and I ac-tually tend to stay away from people. So, I had to build up some courage. But after the first half an hour I felt fine.

Group photo from left to right: Daniela Brust (NMC), Raphaël Ruelle, Sophie Meyar, Manuela Drosson (NMC), Reiner Despineux (NMC), Marcel Herzog, Robert Müllers, Axel Dannemark (NMC), Patrick Barth (NMC), Carmen Cormann

Robert Müllers: I was pretty nervous, too. I have hearing prob-lems and I was wondering if this could be a problem for Mr. Dannemark, when he had to repeat something. In my training as a cook and also in other practical training courses I had the experience that many colleagues simply stopped talking to me. But here it was different.

Axel Dannemark: It didn’t seem to me that I had to repeat a lot.

What exactly was the course of the day for you?

Reiner Despineux: Marcel spent two hours with each of the colleagues. The morning began at eight o‘clock directly with a technical drawing. During the day he fully implemented a small project: drawing, building, wiring, programming of the machine control...

Marcel Herzog: To draw the circuit diagram which was really challenging. Then, from what I had drawn, I wired and pro-grammed the controls and the operating panels. Since these were things that I had never done that way before, it was very interesting.

" I think that everyone has abilities and

that impairments are certainly partial ly

overrated.“

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Robert Müllers: We went to each division and Mr. Dannemark explained me a lot of things about them.

Axel Dannemark: In the context of the changeover to Naturefoam®, our agenda included the physical change on the machine of our program. With the production still running, we recorded the basic parameters for reformulating the tools and then entered them in the data management.

Robert Müllers: I was most interested in dosing on the machine, in measuring, in how we modify a product – an insulating tube – and make readjustments.

Manuela Drosson: Because my trainee had never worked be-fore in a human resources department, I first explained to her the structure of NMC as well as our internal processes. Then we planned the student jobs and as well as re-organised the filing of the forward training applications.

Patrick Barth: My trainee didn’t want to work at the PC, but she was keen to pack. Therefore, we packed, did waste disposal and prepared samples in the PEX department.

Daniela Brust: We first offered the trainee a brief introduc-tion to accounting, because he had no previous knowledge of it. And then we entered invoices together and calculated production costs for new products.

What was your feeling when you started the day in the morning?

Marcel Herzog: I went there quite nervous. But I shouldn’t have, because everything went really well.

Reiner Despineux: I think it‘s good that NMC is involved in something like that and I want to be part of it.

Gabriele Fettweis: For us the DUOday is a day during which we want to sensibilise new companies to work together. It is therefore important that the preparation was good and that the duos suited everyone well. This has given us a certain amount of effort.

How was your experience with your DUO partner?

Axel Dannemark: Nowhere went wrong.

Robert Müllers: I could ask a lot of questions and he answered each of them.

Reiner Despineux: Marcel Herzog tried out everything and was always ready to listen. He also tried to build something himself and this is crucial in our job. Even if it is not possible to make a definitive statement after eight hours, Marcel was absolutely a complete employee on this day.

Daniela Brust: To me the trainee seemed eagerly interested, so I had the feeling to have well invested my time. My trainee even wants to do now an apprenticeship in accounting.

Patrick Barth: I felt my trainee not as a burden, but on the con-trary: it went faster with four hands.

Lisa Baumgarten: Appreciation and positive feedback give energy and courage. The courage for another practical train-ing, but also for other colleagues with disabilities.

What was your feeling when you left the company in the evening?

Robert Müllers: A successful day was over. We achieved a pos-itive result and switched to bio. It was a very good experience.

Marcel Herzog: The colleagues were all really nice, so I was very pleasantly surprised. A cool day!

Manuela Drosson: It was a beautiful, human exchange. As far as skills and the attitude to life are concerned, I‘ve noticed no impairment in my trainee at all. A great person, to whom I would gladly offer a job.

What has this experience encouraged you to do?

Axel Dannemark: To find the strengths of each person.

Manuela Drosson: My trainee shows much courage in her life every day and approaches her challenges with confidence. This makes you realise once again that each of us can cope with problems and diffi-culties. That fundamentally gives you courage.

Thank you for this interview.

"Appreciation and positive feed back

give energy and courage.“

From l. to r.:Lisa Baumgarten

and Gabriele Fettweis

(Office for Self-determined Life,

eastern Belgium)

>

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Fight against climate change

The courage to break new grounds has been a distin-guishing feature of NMC since the company was estab-lished over 65 years ago. With a flexible pipe insulation made of renewable and recycled materials, today the family company specialised in innovative foam products is again achieving a true quantum leap.

Everyone says: „Something must be done to stop the cli-mate change!“. NMC is acting. It is imperative that the CO2 emissions are drastically reduced, in order to limit the global warming to less than two degrees Celsius. Buildings contribute considerably to the emission of climate-damaging gases. In Germany alone they lead to 20 percent of the CO2 emissions. In addition, households consume about 85 percent of their

energy for heating and warm water. The corresponding po-tential for savings remains thus important. 75 percent of the buildings built before 1979 do not satisfy current energy effi-ciency requirements. The main reasons are obsolete technical equipment as well as bad, or even missing, insulation. Modern pipe insulation products minimise cold or heat loss and thus make a significant contribution to the energetic optimisation of buildings. With noticeable success: lower energy costs, more living comfort and a significant increase in the value of the property speak for themselves. And the climate also benefits significantly from it.

The flexible pipe insulation products CLIMAFLEX® and EXZEN-TROFLEX® are true assets for climate protection. They do not

only convince by their excellent insulation values and optimal processing characteristics. As of now they are also produced with very low CO2 emissions, by using the NMC Naturefoam®. This is possible due to their innovative mix of renewable and recycled raw materials. It once more significantly improves the already very good climate and energy balance of the flexible pipe insulation products. In the new foam at least 50 percent of the petroleum-derived raw material is replaced by polyeth-ylene based on sugarcane. Combining recycled material and additives for fire safety and insulation values improvement a material mix is created that has the same technical properties that CLIMAFLEX® and EXZENTROFLEX® of NMC Naturefoam® had in previous formulations. The environmental product dec-laration certified by the Institute of Construction and Environ-

ment attests that it was possible to reduce the CO2 emissions to zero in the whole manufacturing process of the flexible pipe insulation made of renewable sugarcane raw material, from the start to the factory gate. In comparison with emissions from the production of common rubber insulation products, there is even a reduction of up to 220 kg CO2 emissions per cubic metre of foam. A further contribution to this excellent eco-balance is that the renewable raw material is preserv-ing fossil resources. Thus, EXZENTROFLEX® and CLIMAFLEX® made of NMC Naturefoam® support in many ways climate protection and are therefore an active encouragement in the fight against climate change.

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Setting signals

Fun, sport and social responsibility: this combination has been driving for over 20 years thousands of swim-mers in East Belgium to do as many laps as possible in the swimming marathon. For each lap swum the Lions Clubs Eupen and St. Vith donate 20 cents for the fight against the new poverty in the region.

In 2015 the swimming marathon celebrated its 20th anniver-sary. Within the framework of this big event a swimming team was created for the third time, and, among the novelties, an NMC sponsored team joined the competition. Nine NMC em-ployees swam their laps and brought over 600 lengths in the pool. Apart from the satisfaction of having done something for their own health and fitness, they also supported a good cause, like all the participants in the event. The proceeds of the joint swimming performance, together with the money from sponsors and the donations received during this action day, went to the region’s people in need. In this way, all participants and donors set a sign of solidarity.

Stephan Goor was for the first time at the start with the NMC team. But he is an old stager in swimming marathon. He has been among the participants since the first edition, 22 years

ago, after all. He has always been impressed by the participa-tion of countless people of all ages who want to do something good with an hour of effort in the swimming pool. Besides, every year he wants to improve his prior year‘s performance. Roger Kniebs, human resources manager at NMC, has also been delighted every year that so many starters make their little contribution to support people in need. Therefore, three years ago he also initiated the formation of an NMC swim-ming team. Two other colleagues, Volker Ohn and Silvain Heuschen, also liked the relaxed atmosphere and the good mood and decided they want to participate again next year.

Certainly, a challenge for all ambitious participants was to swim a large number of laps in the partly overcrowded pool.

The result of this year‘s fundraising event shows that the effort of the East Belgians was worth it: 123,323 lengths swum, which is about 2,000 laps more than the previous year, re-sulted, together with donations and sponsorship money in a total amount of ca. 70,000 euro, which has been distributed meanwhile by the Lions Club to the people and institutions in need in the region.

Bold change

The design of a hair salon contributes significantly to its image. A Berlin hairdresser chain was there-fore looking for a distinctive design element. The choice was the ARSTYL® wall panels, which became the signature feature of the company’s image.

The first impression counts. This is true not only for people, but also for premises. Their appearance plays an important role, in particular when they are supposed to convey a solid sense of style as well as professionalism. This becomes a particular challenge when, like in the case of the Berlin chain Friseur Beatrix, many salons have to be modernised and be given a distinctive appearance. The aim was to create a modern, stylish atmosphere, where customers feel comfortable.

Dörthe Krüger-Mähl, the manager of the master enterprise for professional colour design, recommended a concept of bright colors, purist shapes and clear structures. Thus, the industrial chic of the tables and reception desk, with its concrete-effect look, had a visual correspondence in the design floor. The large

white walls and the suspended ceiling with built-in light cof-fers emphasize the cool look. Black leather armchairs at the reception and at service points make an exciting contrast. But an elegant eye catcher is the three-dimensional wall design be-hind the desk, with ARSTYL® wall panels in the Domino model variant.

The three-tiered square design of the panels subtly prolongs the coffered structure of the ceiling and catches the eye due to its soft natural paint tone. The special effect of the mosaic-like wall is created by the interplay of three-dimensionality and the color offset of one square per row. What looks so complicated was easily executed due to the simple processing and mounting of the panels. Based on a previously created installation plan, the ARSTYL® wall panels painted in the desired colors were horizontally laid. The finished wall emphasises the representa-tive overall image and at the same time gives its unique effect to the salon. This is what makes it, at holder’s request, the recognisable signature feature of the company for the future modernization of other salons.

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A gateway to new worlds

Success is the result of courage. This is strikingly demonstrated by the new sales and marketing con-cept used by NMC Architecture & Design Business Unit to respond to specific customer requests.

A change of perspective can often provide a clearer view of the essential. To achieve this, Architecture & Design revisited the over-all brand image and redesigned it. This is how the style collec-tions concept emerged. Under the motto We ennoble spaces, the new concept shows, in an illustrative manner, the wide range of products offered by NMC for all stylistic directions and all kinds of spaces. NMC has created a single collection for each of the four style lines defined – modern, timeless, classic or commercial –. As consultancy is no longer focused on product groups, but on holistic interior design, a slipcase, for each style collection, has been developed to display them in a clear and user-friendly man-ner. A decoration book with inspiring room pictures for each style collection complements it. Thus, depending on the client‘s requirements, dealers and craftsmen will have at any time at hand a high-quality, informative tool for a successful counselling. Using those tools, they immerse in the desired style world and find everything needed to design it. This makes the seller‘s argu-mentation and the customer’s choice easier. For key accounts, a collection of bestsellers, with 30 references for the ARSTYL®, WALLSTYL® and NOMASTYL® product lines, is also available.

In addition to this new concept, NMC has a variety of tools to support its customers in planning, sales and implementation.

Modular presentation systems for the point of sale, displays, sample cases, architect’s kits, advertising materials and mar-keting documents provide evidence of the practically oriented partnership that makes NMC a valuable address for customers. More reliability in consulting is also expected from the newly created Architecture & Design Institute, which offers support with seminars on seven technical and four commercial topic areas whenever needed. The new concept was presented to customers at Heimtextil, receiving extremely positive feedback, which can also be quantified based on the orders received for the collections and systems. “It is simply a pleasure to sell not only individual products, but entire concepts”, explains Adrian Smaza, sales manager of Architecture & Design, NMC Germany.

However, the development and implementation of such con-cept need a lot of endurance. At the beginning there was the wish not only to know the customers needs, but also to under-stand them precisely, so that the new concept might be de-veloped upon their requirements. Through a comprehensive market analysis and a cross-divisional collaboration during the concept development, existing solutions were questioned, de-mand was ascertained and every solution idea assessed from many different perspectives. Each measure developed was also repeatedly checked for correctness and feasibility before im-plementation. Thus, the concept of style collections evolved into a genuine solution from the customers’ perspective, which answers their requirements in a truly holistic manner.

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Shirking is not allowed

Tests are not for everyone and we need to gather all our courage to face those we know to be tough. NMC wanted to know and put NOMAWOOD® to a chal-lenging load test.

We must be very confident when we voluntarily submit ourselves to a rigorous test that is conducted by proven experts. With the NOMAWOOD® decking boards NMC has ventured into this step and have commissioned TÜV Süd with the certification of its profiles. The external experts have submitted the fully syn-thetic boards to severe tests. The focus of their testing program was put on mechanical and physical safety, material resistance and thermal load capacity. All NOMAWOOD® models suc-ceeded brilliantly and received the TÜV certificate as the best synthetic decking board product. Whether in planed, brushed or coarse wood surface texture, NOMAWOOD® convinced the neutral testing authority with its water resistance, shape stability, breaking strength, UV and temperature resistance as well as its anti-slip properties. With this TÜV seal as a proof of qual-ity, builders will now always be on the safe side – regardless of whether for public buildings, balcony, or terrace design at high altitude, restaurant or hotel facilities. Due to its bending strength, even at point load, NOMAWOOD® can also be laid

on upper floor balconies without additional anti-fall protec-tion in the substructure. The best example of this load-bearing strength capacity can be seen at the Worriken-Bütgenbach boat rental centre in East Belgium.

The reservoir Bütgenbach Lake, on the outskirts of the Hohes Venn nature reserve, is popular among locals and tourists as a trip and camping destination offering ideal conditions for water sports enthusiasts. For the restoration of their landing stage the tourism board personnel has looked for a surfacing that could durably withstand the high stresses caused by the weather, the water and crowds of visitors. The wooden planks used previ-ously had shown heavy wear marks and rotted out very quickly. In order to avoid similar negative experiences in the future, the regional planners searched for a product whose appropriate suitability could be proved. Therefore, in addition to its attrac-tive appearance, they were convinced by the TÜV certificate of NOMAWOOD®. This gave them the certitude that tourists will not slip on the synthetic boards even in wet conditions, that the color of the landing stage will not fade even in intense sunlight and the boards, even after many years, will still be at their best without any care. Because NOMAWOOD® delivers what the TÜV seal promises.

Venturing into something new

The NMC Group is systematically focusing on growth, to which partnerships and corporate acquisitions should also contribute. The risks which are always associated with such steps require the courage for innovation. And perseverance, when unexpected setbacks occur.

With two acquisitions and a strategic partnership, NMC has fur-ther expanded its leading market position. On 1 October 2016 NMC acquired the majority of shares in the Luxembourg com-pany FoamInvest, the parent company of two Russian extrusion enterprises in Tver and Krasnodar for insulation and packaging solutions of polyethylene foam. With this new acquisition NMC further expands its business activities on the Russian market. Since 2004 NMC has already been represented with its own production facility for decorative profiles and skirting boards in Shugarova, 100 kilometers south of Moscow. Triggered by a gas explosion in Tver, which claimed one dead and nine injured, the first measures in the Russian plants after the takeover were directed to the ad-justment of equipment, processes and work safety to meet NMC’s high level standards.

With effect from 1 April 2017, NMC acquired the business of the Ger-man Baumann Group, a company based in Ulm, Germany, which has been operating for more than 20 years throughout Europe. At three sites in Germany the Baumann Group produces and distributes thermal in-sulation products as well as pre-insulated pipes for solar systems and

heat pumps. In 2016, with 35 employees it generated a turnover of ten million euros. NMC has already been linked with two subsidiaries, Aeroflex Europe GmbH and Aeroline Tube Systems Baumann GmbH, through several years of intensive collaboration. As of 1 April, processing and logistics were taken over by the newly-founded company Insulation Tube Systems GmbH. Since then, all business activities are carried out through NMC Deutschland GmbH which also continue to operate the well-known Baumann brands. Customers can thus choose from a much wider range of innovative foam solutions in the areas of energy conser-vation, isolation, building services and industry.

With effect from 1 July 2017 a strategic partnership with the SELIT Group based in Erbes-Büdesheim is the most recent transaction. The third-gen-eration owner-operated SELIT Dämmtechnik GmbH and SELIT-TEC Dämmsysteme GmbH are specialists in innovative underlays for floating installation of parquet, laminate and vinyl floors. Through the new part-nership NMC expands its portfolio of products for the optimisation of the living comfort. In return, the previous owners of SELIT, Marco and Rouven Seitner, have become shareholders in NMC. Both companies continue to operate independently in the market under their own names using the established brand names.

Following these associations the number of NMC employees will rise to more than 1,600, working at 16 different production sites and in 21 sales offices. All three transactions underline the expansion ambi-tions of NMC Group.

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Just do it!

Throwing the existing overboard and daring to make a new start requires courage and determination in its execution. The marketing and product management of COMFY® wanted a new product aspect. In just four months, they have completely redesigned and realised the concept.

Where there’s a will, there’s a way, says the proverb. The market-ing and product management team of COMFY® has impressively demonstrated this theory. Because it didn’t limit to the actually we would need ... and didn’t look for pretexts, but put the idea into practice. The task was to present the product range in a brochure for the 2018 Football World Cup. There were no current docu-ments on the merchandising products and the photos and labels

were also outdated. The other products did not look much better. A modern overall concept with corresponding implementation was missing. Soon, the team agreed: Let’s do it now!

Only six weeks later, a first layout was presented to sales man-agers. Their consistently positive feedback encouraged them to continue and to develop ideas for an attractive, thoroughly coordinated communication. The core idea of the re-launch was a modular folder, into which the sellers could deliver the required brochures together with their business cards. For this purpose five application areas were defined, which presented the products in a uniform layout: Aquafun & Aquasport, Fitness & Rehabilitation, Garden & Leisure, Car & Safety as well as the World Cup Range 2018. New was the idea that a product

could be included in different ranges of application in order to thematically illustrate this possibility to users. For example, the COMFY® Noodle is no longer shown as a kids’ swimming fun, but is also found in the fitness and leisure brochures. Anal-ogously, the COMFY® Kickboards and COMFY® Connectors are also represented several times in the brochures. An addi-tional brochure prominently highlights What is really important to us. In addition to test reports, the customer can here find information on how NMC works for a sustainable environment. The title pages of the square brochures and folders define five photo icons, which illustrate the application areas. The icon for the area covered in the brochure is optically highlighted in each case.

What sounds so simple and logical was a major accomplish-ment for every person involved. Most of the photos had to be recreated. To do so, it was necessary not only to get the cor-responding products, but also to find various photo locations and models of all ages. Besides, autumn weather didn’t help much. But, starting from the motto Difficulties are there to be overcome, the team mastered every challenge. At the begin-ning of January all the folders, brochures and matching labels were printed in four languages (German, English, French and Dutch). However, the COMFY® team does not want to rest on this success. A website with a similar structure is now being developed, as well as an idea box where the end users could discuss new possible applications.

Coveted award

NMC has proved it: design expertise pays off. The company secured no less than three Red Dot Design Awards in one of the internationally most recognised design competitions.

It takes a certain amount of courage to compete with over 5,500 products from 54 countries in design excellence. The results validate NMC’s decision: two products of the Archi-tecture & Design business unit may pride themselves with a

total of three of the coveted awards for high design quality. The ARSTYL® wall tiles developed by the Polish designer Mac Stopa obtained one Red Dot Design Award in each catego-ries of Elements of Interior Design and Materials & Surfaces. With these awards the jury valued the design, inspired by nature, which uses a modular configuration to highlight both small wall surfaces and entire walls. Another Red Dot Design Award in the category Materials & Surfaces was obtained by the ARSTYL® LS1 corner profile, which was developed to-

gether with the Norwegian NMC partner Deco Systems AS. In combination with plasterboards, it makes possible to design window frames easily and up to 70 percent faster.

A jury of 39 prestigious design experts from all over the world have examined for several days all the products submitted. The assessment criteria included the degree of innovation, functionality, formal quality and ecological compatibility. The whole line of ARSTYL® products have convinced the jury and

WHAT WOULD LIFE BE

IF WE HAD NO COURAGE

TO ATTEMPT ANYTHING? Vincent van Gogh

they can now bear the Red Dot Design winner label as best products of year 2017. The wall elements and profiles that received this award are thus recognised as trend-setting in the product design. The Red Dot Design Award has been given since 1955 by Design Zentrum Nordrhein-Westfalen in Essen and is considered worldwide since then as a pres-tigious seal for outstanding design quality.

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45 sec

More security through new methods

Getting up again after falling down requires the cour-age and determination to strike a new, better way. After the two disastrous fires in 2007 and 2014 NMC has been striving to prevent the recurrence of such a disaster.

In order to minimise the risk of fire in the polyethylene storage halls, which can never be totally excluded, NMC Eynatten decided to install automatic foam extinguishing systems, which are acti-vated within seconds and start to extinguish the fire in maximum 45 seconds. The first was in the, rebuilt, Hall 4, as the fire safety regulations required there were also more stringent. Usage of tra-ditional sprinkler systems and the required roof ventilation would have strongly reduced the warehouse’s height.

With courageous new solutions, NMC opted for a foam extin-guishing system that allowed a full exploitation of the warehouse, but was not yet listed in the relevant fire safety standards. There-fore, the system had to be tested after the completion of the hall in the presence of insurance and fire service representatives. With the new fire extinguishing system, instead of Water go! it was Foam go! and within a few minutes the entire hall was filled with two meter high of foam.

The mixture is made of two percent of foaming agent and 98 percent of water. It is transformed into foam by foam generators mounted in multiple points in the warehouse. The foam falling from the generators is spread further on into the hall by the suc-cessive masses of foam. This creates a uniform foam carpet, which

finally completely floods the hall. Every minute 240 litres of this foam and water mixture flow through each of the 18 generators. They produce nearly 3.5 million litres of foam, so that the hall is flooded within four minutes up to the ceiling. In the much larger Hall 16 there are even 26 generators installed, which produce over 20 million liters of foam within four minutes. They get the necessary water with the aid of high performance feed pumps, pumping up to 10,000 litres of water per minute in the generators. The resulting foam smothers the flames by oxygen deprivation and at the same time adheres to the hot surfaces, to cool them down.

Another advantage of this system is that the fire is not only extin-guished as fast as possible, but it also significantly reduces the consequential as much less water is used in comparison with sprin-

kler systems. The system is activated by means of infrared smoke detectors that monitor both temperature and smoke density. If two adjacent detectors go off at the same time, the foam extinguishing system will become active. After the successful test in Hall 4, the automatic foam system was also installed in Hall 16 and expan-sion in further halls is under discussion. „With the fully automatic fire extinguishing system we have installed a fire safety system that ensures that our latent and ever-present risk of fire is ready to be fought in its early phase of development and thus protects durably our building and material assets“, says the plant manager Bernd Vorhagen, convinced of the added value in safety.

Central theme of the next nmc-LIVE: Joy

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