AGROMAT: stories of happiness. How to become the leader of the domestic ceramics market

Tiles and plumbing - here and now

Started as an importing company, AGROMAT has grown in 27 years to become the most famous domestic specialized retail chain. The share of retail sales now occupies about 60% and continues to grow, as noted by the company. Now AGROMAT has 23 stores in nine Ukrainian regions and Batumi, Georgia.

The main part of the company's assortment is tiles and sanitary ware in all price categories. In general, the AGROMAT stores present the products of about 1 leading global brands of tiles, sanitary ware, furniture, kitchens, lighting and parquet.

The capital's specialized shopping center AGROMAT on Bulakhovskogo, 4, with a total area of ​​16 square meters, is the flagship store. sq. It is, by the way, the largest in Europe. In the autumn of last year, in response to the quarantine, a zone of Ukrainian brands was opened here, which occupies an area of ​​400 square meters. m.

AGROMAT's clients are those who plan to renovate their apartment or house, and those who intend to set up their business, from a small cafe or hairdressing salon to a large shopping mall or hotel.

"The modern buyer of tiles and sanitary ware makes repairs once every eight years, while he is willing to spend time on 4-6 visits to a specialized store. Most of our customers pay more attention to the price of the product than to the quality and type of material. In recent years, the buyer is looking more at complex solutions, attracting design studios and architects or purchasing ready-made interior solutions," said Halyna Dobrovolskaya, head of the AGROMAT retail chain, in an interview.

As noted in the company, the philosophy of AGROMAT is reflected in the slogan: "Tile and sanitary ware here and now." The staff aims to predict the client's wishes and shorten the path from the repair idea to its implementation as much as possible. Now the highly professional team of AGROMAT has about 1 employees. AGROMAT's like-minded partners — more than 500 architects and designers — help turn clients' dreams and plans into reality. Many of them became members of KADA (Club of Architects and Designers of AGROMAT). AGROMAT employees and KADA participants regularly visit world architectural exhibitions (CERSAIE, Cevisama, and Saloni, etc.), factories where they get to know world trends, acquire new skills, and raise their professional level.

 

How to start repairing a dream

The most difficult thing in renovation is to make a choice, turn the desire for change into an action plan. IN AGROMAT company stores everything is arranged to simplify the initial stage of repair.

AGROMAT stores are modern showrooms with ready-made interior solutions, thousands of collections of famous world brands, hundreds of shades, formats and textures. The design of showrooms is constantly updated. Comfortable decision-making areas with Wi-Fi are provided, where you can work with an architect or manager.

"Every day we are working on a new showroom. More than 200 showrooms in Ukraine are updated per hour. Our flagship store on Bulakhovskogo Street has about 100 showrooms, in which we have tried to recreate all modern trends, taking into account the main trends in design. Several specialists from the AGROMAT company work on the designs: category managers, interior designers, we often invite architects and designers from KADA for development, sometimes we bring in foreign ones. It happens that the design is developed together with the manufacturing factory," says Mikhail Katsko, deputy director of AGROMAT's marketing department.

 

Beauty that becomes the norm

The best tiles and sanitary ware are those that you admire when you buy and that you don't notice later. This is a beauty that is becoming the norm. In order to fully implement this slogan, AGROMAT constantly works with more than two hundred suppliers, increases the number and area of ​​its warehouses, expands the geography of deliveries, replenishes the fleet, offers customers 3D visualization services, and updates the functionality of the online store.

More than 1 of the best architects and designers have become like-minded partners of AGROMAT

The TOP-5 countries from which AGROMAT supplies products today look like this: Spain, China, Italy, Poland, Germany. At the same time, the company actively cooperates with all four tile factories in Ukraine, and last year a zone of Ukrainian brands was specially opened in the capital's AGROMAT store on Bulakhovskogo.

"The share of the ceramic tile market in Ukraine, which is accounted for by domestic manufacturers, is growing significantly. Therefore, we decided to gather the best within the walls of AGROMAT and present them to clients in the most convenient format," explained Dobrovolskaya.

As the company noted, at the time of the opening of the new zone, the share of domestic tiles in the sales of the AGROMAT network was 33% in monetary terms. "I would like to note that Ukrainian productions are equipped with modern equipment that allows them to produce even large-format tiles," Alina Kovalchuk, head of the economy segment's tile procurement department, said in an interview.

Mikhail Katsko told how clients' preferences change, their requirements for the quality of materials and the creativity of solutions increase: "If we talk about plumbing, then we should talk about installation. People refuse compacts, prefer hidden plumbing. Features of modern layouts have brought their own new trends: before, when there was only one bathroom, no one chose - they installed a bathroom. You can bathe and wash the baby there. Nowadays, two bathrooms are often installed, and there are also bathtubs and shower cabins / partitions. There is still a noticeable trend towards large formats in tiles, although the love for small formats does not fade both in factories and among clients. Sometimes the market itself makes a choice for the client, excluding or adding certain tile formats to the collection. Well, the general trend: now it is not enough just to implement the idea - take a bath, wash, pay attention to the aesthetic side as well."

 

Ahead of time

"You need to run with all your legs just to stay in place, and to get somewhere you need to run at least twice as fast," - this phrase from "Alice in Wonderland" by Lewis Carroll can be considered a rule that works especially well during high turbulence. AGROMAT managed to emerge victorious in all the crises that befell Ukraine precisely thanks to its flexibility and client-orientation. The corona crisis is no exception.

Ideas and developments of leading design bureaus, new materials and avant-garde collections are the first in Ukraine to appear precisely in AGROMAT. Constant monitoring and reasonable implementation of the latest IT developments for the industry are carried out, individual orders and 3D visualization services are offered, the functionality of the online store is updated - this is work ahead of schedule.

TOP-5 countries from which AGROMAT supplies products: Spain, China, Italy, Poland, Germany

"All people are designers in their own way, but sometimes clients need to check how the idea will look in reality, then the service of 3D visualization of space helps. Which, by the way, is free on the condition that a purchase is made in AGROMATE. We are also implementing an improvement that will allow you to see the created visualization in augmented reality — with an even clearer sense of space. We work with QR price tags, which allows you to get the maximum amount of information about the product on your own, without the help of a manager: stock availability, collection items, and more. And the most convenient thing is working with lists. That is, when choosing a product in the store, collect the one you like in the list, and then send it to your loved ones, the designer, the manager to place the order. Or just send it to print and take a printout of your selection from the printer. Now the pilot version of this tool is being tested in one of the stores," said Katsko. The demand for such digital tools in stores is constantly growing, by 20% per hour.

"Due to the quarantine, we expect to increase the volume of online sales. But it is worth admitting that in our segment, you want to see, feel, and twist the product in the sunlight. Therefore, the increase is not so significant. In our work with designers and architects, cooperation has practically not undergone any changes, we work as usual - both from the catalog and online," says Katsko.

 

AGROMAT inspires

Julia Chulskaya

CEO Julia Chulska design & architecture studio

Using the example of the interior of a wooden rest house, I will talk about the features of cooperation with the AGROMAT company.

This is small, only 142 square meters. m house is located on the shore of a picturesque lake. We were tasked with making a recreation area that would be actively and diversely used by a large family with four children and their friends. There is a bathhouse, a Finnish sauna, an Austrian Kraksen, a spacious recreation room with a fireplace.

We left the wooden walls, cut out a window in the steam room at the owner's request to open a view of the lake. In AGROMATE, they picked up bright inclusions - a hand-painted Kohler sink, and some other details.

The highlight of the complex was the SICIS panel — a mosaic that goes directly into the pool water. An expressive monochrome stroke is a portrait of a girl with one color accent, a bright blue eye.

Thanks to AGROMAT, designers visit the factories of the best European manufacturers

Thanks to the AGROMAT company, we often visit the best Italian, Spanish, German, and French factories for the production of tiles, furniture, and sanitary ware. I have an impressive selection of photos and samples brought from such trips that I show to clients. The customer was inspired by the photo of this particular mosaic. We calculated that the implementation would be too expensive, and spent three months looking for an alternative. But since the customer was passionate about such an idea, in the end we returned to the original version. And it was worth it!

 

AGROMAT is a reliable partner

Dmitry Davydovsky

Davydovsky Architecture&Design

We made an apartment for a young creative girl. Her wish was to get rid of the uncomfortable initial layout. We managed to make a spacious living room with a kitchen and a dining area, with five windows offering a picturesque view of Pechersk. The master area includes a bedroom, a bathroom and a dressing room, the wall of which is made of glass blocks. AGROMAT helped us in the selection of materials and components for bathrooms and with parquet boards for the entire apartment.

Thanks to AGROMAT, I cover the biggest needs that I have. First of all, we are talking about the reliability of supplies - it has been checked for 10 years, that is how long I have been working with the company. Very high-quality service and in terms of information - within a day I receive an answer to all positions and accounts.

AGROMAT means reliability of supplies, quality service and interesting partner programs

AGROMAT is one of the most loyal companies in terms of working with architects. Club KADA offers very interesting partner programs — visits to factories, master classes, events. You won't get the full picture in the showroom. When you visit a factory, see production and a full assortment, the possibilities of a particular factory and its products are revealed much more widely. I mainly work with premium brands and it is at the factory that I see how much effort and resources are spent on creating a product.

In general, AGROMAT's assortment is so large that, having such a partner, a designer can cover any need in the selection of materials and components.

 

Meeting with the client at AGROMATE

Irina Tsimbalyst

Head of interior design studio Irina Tsimbalist

My approach is that before creating the master plan, I first meet with the customer at AGROMAT to select the material, and then I draw it all. When a customer comes to AGROMAT, he is, of course, surprised by the assortment and aesthetic presentation of the showroom, the individual approach to the client. And service — there were never delays in deliveries.

It is very important to show the materials in real life, in these cases contact is required. We immediately discuss the budget. Because when the client sees the AGROMAT assortment, he clearly understands that the tile can cost both UAH 300 and UAH 3. per sq. m, and sees the difference between them.

In the showrooms of AGROMAT, the client can see trends based on the examples of the presented collections

An inexperienced designer will draw a tile, but it will not suit the client's budget. And the customer is upset, because he managed to fall in love with a picture that he cannot realize. I visit AGROMATE two or three times a week and see how the collections are constantly updated. Therefore, first I take a walk with the client, talk about trends using the examples of the presented collections. We discuss what could be replaced, offer an alternative, find optimal options.

Clients are different. There are those to whom the budget is important. There are those in which trends come first. And there are those who choose "for tactility" - saw, touched. And AGROMAT showrooms provide an opportunity to satisfy the requests of all categories of clients.

 

Together to success

Bold decisions ensured AGROMAT company success at every stage of development. The basic components of AGROMAT's philosophy remain unchanged: reliable partners, grateful clients and warm relations in the team. Therefore, the company is optimistic about the future. We will see more ambitious projects implemented with the help of AGROMAT, which bring joy to customers.

 

/The material is published on the pages #30 of volume PRAGMATIKA.MEDIA/