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Interviews
France
Ceric Technologies Boosts
a New Era of the Ceric Brand
CERIC Technologies prepares to celebrate its 3rd anniversary after taking
over the heritage of the previous
Groupe CERIC. In order to carry forward and to build on this heritage,
CERIC Technologies is doubling the
size of its offices and strengthening
its organisation with at least 15
additional positions: 2013 is expected to be a break-through year
with no less than six new brick
plants in the making.
Jean-Jacques Wagner (JJW), previous
Managing Director of CERIC’s German subsidiaries, and previous
International Development Director of the Keyria Group, is now at the
helm of CERIC with renewed ambitions.
cfi: When did you decide to comeback
to CERIC?
JJW: Well, I never really lost contact
with our industry. Back in 2008 I had
the opportunity to acquire a promising patent and create a new and fun
company in the decoration business
with a few partners in Spain. But I
stayed in touch with Ceric Technologies as advisor to its management
after its acquisition by Pléiade
Investment. They then invited me to
become Chairman of CERIC’s Advisory Board, and one thing led to the
other … But my decision to become
acting Managing Director of CERIC
was really based on two major facts:
the incredible strength of the CERIC
brand and the solid commitment of
Pléiade to see CERIC become a major
player again.
cfi: But hasn’t the fate of CERIC created a completely new distribution of
players in the heavy clay business?
JJW: Yes indeed, it may look easy to
start several new companies out of a
former group in the engineering
world: there are limited industrial
assets or patents in this world where
the major assets are people and
know-how. However it is a mistake
to believe that you can become a
major player without a strong name,
tens of years of experience, access to
flexible financing, a long term focus
on innovation, as well as some
specific strengths: for instance
cfi/Ber. DKG 90 (2013) No. 1-2
Fig. 1 Jean-Jacques Wagner, Managing
Director at CERIC Technologies
CERIC can rely on it’s PELERIN®
brand as well as on CERIC’s original
technical staff. After all they are the
core of the people who built Ceric in
the first place. And they all stayed
with the new CERIC team.
We are also fortunate to have
the blessing of CERIC’s previous
founders: Jean Mérienne as well as
members of Michel Rasse’s family are
amongst our current shareholders.
Our customers never lost contact
with CERIC’s key people such as
Patrick Hébrard (President), Nicolas
Ravel (Sales), Laurent Tiffreau (Projects), only to name a few visible
ones. And I am pleased to announce
that Richard Gaignon and Philippe
Hatton will be respectively acting as
Marketing and Technology advisors
to CERIC starting early 2013.
Continuity through technology,
continuity through people! And who
else can claim 400 references around
the world?
cfi: How is everyone going to defend its
piece of the cake?
JJW: A major shake-up may well be
possible. With very few new projects
and so many hungry suppliers, the
market has become a buyers’ market. Prices are no more meant to
cover cost plus overhead plus investment (in R&D or industrial tools) as
it should be the case in any wealthy
and developing industry. Rather we
see companies selling off their prod-
ucts and services at the “opportunity cost” of maintaining a minimum
activity in their workshops to avoid
laying-off their core people!
The future will tell. I will not comment on the competition, as long as
everyone maintains a minimum set
of ethical standards. Rather, I wish
them all well.
cfi: Selling on price is not a survival
strategy. How are your visions to overcome the difficulties of the current
market situation?
JJW: At CERIC we are back to our
roots as an EPC company: we concentrate on Engineering and design
of innovative solutions, Procurement
at best buying practices among a
network of select partners and suppliers, and Construction with quality
practices and start-ups by CERIC’s
long term experts. This is what we
do well and what we should concentrate upon, not filling the workshop in the backyard.
cfi: But what about PELERIN®? Isn’t
that a manufacturing facility where
you build your own machines?
JJW: Indeed CERIC Technologies
employs 45 people in Soissons,
where we manufacture our raw material preparation and fabrication
machines – and assemble some
other components such as burners,
handling equipment, etc. And we are
in the process of hiring more people.
The PELERIN® brand machines are
tough machines meant for countries
with hard raw materials. Unlike
other brands meant for plastic clay,
PELERIN® machines are designed for
very heavy duty. They are installed in
over 60 brick plants in North Africa,
and in probably over 50 % of the
French bricks and tiles plants. This
alone guarantees sufficient output
for CERIC, let alone other developing market like Russia or else. Not
counting the spare part business.
Actually, the PELERIN® brand is so
strong that we decided to extend its
range of machines (e.g. DEMETER
extruder; see text box) and open
sales to other heavy clay plants integrators – within partnership agreements.
cfi: How does the “engineered/made
in France” sell, compared to the “engineered/made in Germany”?
E 15
Interviews
Fig.2
Etex Koshian:
the widest kiln
casing for roofing
tiles in the world
JJW: I must admit that “made/engineered in Germany” has a lot of
appeal all around the world, but
remember we’re in a niche market
where the country of origin is less
important. It is up to us to prove that
“engineered by CERIC”, “qualitycontrolled by CERIC” and later “serviced by CERIC”, is more adapted to
certain markets. That’s what CERIC
has been doing very successfully
recently, with the redesign and
upgrade of it’s PELERIN® range of
machines (please refer to the specific articles about our new DEMETER
730 extruder). These new developments were made with a permanent
focus in mind: listen to our customers as their needs are changing
for higher output, better efficiency,
and easier maintenance.
As I said earlier, engineering, manufacturing, procurement, but also
automation and supervision systems
Fig. 3
Thermobooster
installed in the Etex
Koshian kiln
E 16
relate to practices way beyond
national borderlines: you have to
speak not only the language, but
also think within the culture of your
customers! Definitely a strong point
for CERIC.
I would like to add the concept
of “innovated in France”. French
groups have a definite appetite for
innovations, and our long-lasting
relationship with them keeps us on
the edge of the market’s expectations: be it for answering the
upcoming European standards –
where CERIC is embarking on an
ambitious program – or simply faster
service or easier maintenance practices.
cfi: What is your vision of the near
future? How is CERIC Technologies
going to cope with the upcoming challenges?
JJW: Regarding the market, as I said
before, I do not believe there will be
room for so many suppliers, although I believe in the re-strengthening of the market in the years to
come. The crisis was financial, not
industrial. The need for construction
materials remains huge around the
world, with major differences in
the level of technology. Regarding
industrialized countries and their
current production over-capacity,
the differentiation will come from
quality (at a set market price) and
efficient production costs. This
leaves CERIC with a field of opportunities: we have to work together
with our customers to face the challenges set by the “regulators”. Brussels is now paving the way for isolation standards and energy efficiencies of the 2020–2050 era. Ceric
wants to be part of the heavy clay
game, and many groups understood
that working in a collaborative way
on innovation is a better long-term
strategy for the industry than an
adversarial buyer/seller relation.
cfi: You mention innovation quite
often. What is CERIC Technologies currently working on?
JJW: This is an ongoing process in
CERIC’s way of thinking. After all
CERIC has been THE innovator for
the past 50 years, and this goes on
every day in all fields pertaining to
our business:
• Raw material preparation and
shaping with the developments
already mentioned in our
PELERIN® brand
• Thermal process: the latest CERIC
kiln in Poland, with its Thermobooster and its largest dimensions
in the world (224 m long/10,28 m
wide) was also built in record time
(Fig. 2, 3)
cfi/Ber. DKG 90 (2013) No. 1-2
Interviews
New PELERIN® Extruder,
the DEMETER 730 ER MRP 12-25
CERIC Technologies celebrated on
25th Oct. 2012 at their Soissons
workshop the inauguration of a
new generation of extruders named
PELERIN® DEMETER (Fig. 4). The
first machine is already sold to
Algeria as part of the delivery for a
complete brick plant.
The PELERIN® workshop at Soissons
were taken over by CERIC in 1982,
who was at that time expanding
from their activities of an engineering office to an international player
for the installation of turn-key brick
plants.
PELERIN® machines are well known
for their sturdiness and are well
adapted to properties of the clays
mined in South Europe and North
Africa
(Algeria,
Morocco,
Tunisia …).
The new machine design is the
result of market studies on customer
needs, which called for:
• improved energy efficiency
• better access for maintenance of
the machine and control of the
process
• higher through-put capacities
• improved opening up of the clay
minerals.
The R+D efforts have been done in
18 month of development work.
The answer of CERIC Technologies
to the market is the new 730- series
of DEMETER (named after Demeter,
the Grecian goddess of the harvest)
extruders, which offer a variety of
advantages compared to the previous PELERIN® extruder series available up to now.
• The de-airing chamber has been
enlarged by 40 % to improve the
opening up and de-airing rate of
the clay. The material has an
extended dwelling time (approx.
plus 37 %).
• For inspection and supervision
portholes have been added and
access doors at the bottom of the
de-airing chamber have been foreseen.
• The accessibility of the grids has
been improved by doubling the
opening of the input tub.
• One-piece paddles design (without assembly bolts) in the new
mixer are freeing up volume in the
tub to improve the intensity of the
mixing of the clay.
• A feed impeller which is located on
every shaft, at the rear of the
mixer tank is used to delete the
dead area at the stuffing box and
start the transfer via the one-piece
paddles.
• The increased volume of material
passing from the mixer to the
extruder comes from an increase
of the output diameter of the
mixer impellers and a more efficient transfer of the clay.
• A cylindrical output nozzle, fitted
with six knives avoids nearly the
dry-clay build-up and reduces the
power consumption as friction is
reduced.
• The energy consumption in total
has been reduced by 10 % on the
one hand by the new design of the
extruder auger and on the other
hand by the installation of new
SEW-Eurodrive gear boxes with
Pelerin® specifications.
• The wear protection of the
mixer has been improved by a
special concrete-based lining.
• Sprinkler-type nozzles ensure a
homogenous humidity distribution in the mixer.
• Thanks to its new de-airing chamber, new screens designs and new
auger shaft, this extruder is perfectly suited to plastic clay and
even to less plastic materials.
• The new extruder is composed of
three parts arranged on one single
level, which is a great advantage
in terms of installation and access
for cleaning or for maintenance.
The extruder can be installed in 5
days, as it is delivered in three
modules (extruder, mixer and
gear box).
• Supervision and automation with
our new Diapason® control system
(Fig. 5), and more to come
• Handling and robotics: CERIC now
works with five major automation
companies in order to provide the
most adapted solution to each and
every market segment (“innovation” in handling would relate
more to ensuring the best quality
and reliability at the expected
price)
• CERIC also works on new “wall
product” development: rather
than filling existing blocks with
isolating materials such as perlite,
mineral fibers or else, we believe
in a new wall configuration with
higher value added, probably less
heavy clay and definitely less labor!
You should hear more about this
very soon!
• Collaborative development partnerships are also being set in
the field of alternative energy supply.
These are only a few examples,
many other opportunities are being
analyzed at this time.
cfi: Who are those partners that you
just mentioned in handling & robotics?
JJW: There is no such thing as an
“universal handling solution”: diversity is key when it comes to finding
the right solution to a mix of variables such as sophistication of tech-
cfi/Ber. DKG 90 (2013) No. 1-2
Fig. 4 The new the DEMETER 730 ER MRP 12-25 extruder
Technical data:
through-put capacity:
70 to 100 t/h
installed power:
560 kW (160 + 400 kW)
diameter of the auger in the
pressure head: 730 mm
max. pressure: 30 bar
space requirement: 7 m × 7,5 m
E 17
Interviews
Fig. 5 Diapason software: view of clay preparation plant
nology, labor environment, diversity
of products, ease of maintenance,
expected return on investment,
etc.). For instance:
• CERATEC and CERIC are strategic
partners when it comes to industrialized and sophisticated high-tech
markets. We operate on an open
and equal mode, where professionalism and technology are keys
• MARCHELUZZO on the other
hand is our partner in the tiles sector. We combine MARCHELUZZO’s
reputation in reliable and affordable handling solutions with CERIC’s long-lasting leadership in U- or
H-solutions. We even partnered
together with FAVOLE and OMEC
to launch a new tile press with its
complete environment
• MAIC and CERIC have decided to
integrate each other’s equipment
in order to offer the best solution
wherever each of us are present
• and of course FIMEC (now part of
MATERIALS Technologies), as well
as TECAUMA both remain CERIC’s
strong historical handling partners, even though we are not
bound by any capitalistic links anymore. We are proud to carry forward this very successful cooperation from the past, and look forward to re-enforcing the cement
between the teams.
cfi: You held in the Ceric and later in
the Keyria organization senior man-
E 18
agement positions. Has your strategy
changed, now that it relates to CERIC
Technologies?
JWW: No, not really. No matter
which industry you are in, it is important to look at your strengths and
weaknesses, and at the market forces
out there. Once you define your
positioning and where you want to
be in five years, it simply comes
down to a daily struggle to get
there. My job is to give every man
and woman at CERIC the means to
achieve these goals. And to bridge
between my customers and my
shareholders so that we measure
success the same way. We are headed that way!
cfi: How would you best describe
CERIC Technologies today?
JJW: Definitely not as “The expensive
best”, nor as “The low-cost downgraded answer”. One thing has
always characterized CERIC: “no
matter what happens, we’ll be there
and find a solution with you”.
If one looks at the highest “rebuy
rate” in any process industry, it does
not belong those who never had any
problem – nor obviously to those
who left when the problems started
arising. It goes to those companies
who stayed committed up to the
end result, up to the contractual
expectation of output and quality.
CERIC has kept these genes from the
old CERIC Group.
And that reminds me of your first
question: why am I back at CERIC?
Together with the eleven members
of the Management Committee, we
want to carry this heritage, polish
the gem back to its original shine
and adapt it to the current and
future market needs. Yes, CERIC is
back and ready for that.
cfi: Any insights on 2013?
JJW: Sure! We are convinced that
2013 will be the year of growth for
CERIC. After a turnover of EUR 17 million in 2011 and short of EUR 30 million in 2012, we are on track for
doubling order entry in 2013. Our
shareholders and banks are working
with us to finance the working capital requirement for this growth.
In addition to moving to new and
bigger offices in May 2013, we are
staffing up with new talents – adding
15+ position to the current work
force of 105 people – reinforcing our
partnerships, developing our network of agents and offices around
the world, investing in more modern
industrial facilities in Soissons
(PELERIN®) and in the Czech Republic. And finally we are stepping-up
our North-African organization, with
a stronger service presence in Algeria, and new agencies in neighbouring countries.
Let 2013 be the stepping stone for
our ambitions for 2015–2020!
cfi: Thank you for talking to us.
KS
cfi/Ber. DKG 90 (2013) No. 1-2