Amsterdam RAI again chooses Satino
It was a hard-fought conquest. After all, who doesn't want to supply the RAI? We and our Satino Partner, Piecom, pulled out all the stops in order to win a contract renewal. And our efforts have been rewarded, we have retained the RAI's business…
‘What a fantastic result!’ says a relieved Frank Laurentius. The managing director of Piecom Cleaning Products thinks back to 2002, when he first won a contract with the RAI with Satino recycled tissue paper. ‘When we received the notification of termination for the current contract, I immediately called Van Houtum and asked them how we could tackle the new situation.’
This took place at the end of 2009. There had been changes in the RAI's purchase department structure. Various contracts were prematurely terminated and new tenders issued. A difficult process was to follow. ‘Because the new tenders had been issued by a different purchase department, there was little awareness of our supplier history. That made the negotiations tricky at times…’ says Laurentius. ‘One of our arguments was: your objective is to operate sustainably, but how do you know whether what you are doing is actually effective? That question certainly surprised them!’
Sustainable and favourably priced
‘The new buyer wanted to know why Van Houtum didn't want to deal directly with the RAI,’ Laurentius continues. ‘I said that Van Houtum only trades with wholesalers. And obviously we buy in for other parties as well. Our purchase volume makes the collaboration a lot more attractive.’
Even so, we had to make considerable concessions during the negotiations. ‘If things get difficult, Van Houtum has to support us. And they have,’ says Laurentius. ‘As a producer, Van Houtum must always bear in mind that the name Satino is printed on all the dispensers and not Piecom. I expect a quid pro quo from Van Houtum for that level of partnership. The Satino brand gets huge exposure at a customer such as the RAI.’
‘We are also proud of recently winning certification for ISO-9001 and ISO-14001,’ continues Laurentius. ‘That's very unusual for a wholesaler in the cleaning and hygiene sector. Furthermore, we were awarded the VCA certificate at the beginning of February.’ That fits in well with our social corporate responsibility arguments for Satino. Our sales pitch consistently emphasises sustainability and Piecom presents itself as a specialist wholesaler in that policy area.
All in all, retaining the RAI's business was a major victory. Especially as ‘everybody who is anybody’ will soon be at the RAI again for the ISSA/Interclean exhibition…