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Development of cleaner products in Berendsen's international product chains
Appendix F
Products of the future secure Berendsen’s position as market leader in Denmark
In cooperation with FORCE Technology and their suppliers, Berendsen has managed to develop a new range of hygiene products for their facility service that are more environmentally friendly and safer to use. The customers of Berendsen are satisfied with the new products – and it cements Berendsen’s position as a market leader.
At Berendsen Textile Service A/S they know the demands of their customers in advance. When the alarm in the media was raised that many liquid soaps could cause allergy because of the preservative MG, the substance had already been phased out of Berendsen’s products. Hence, Berendsen was able to use the media coverage proactive in their marketing of their hygiene products.
Competitive advantages
Environment is not a primary sales argument, as customers are often more focused on:
- Price
- Quality
- Security of supply
- Service level
- Etc.
However, as Christian Steen from Berendsen states: “Environment is one of the parameters where you can differentiate from your competitors. On environmentally concerned markets like in the Nordic Countries this often shows to be the balance between selling and not selling to a customer”.
The value chain or life cycle approach is important when developing new products as all sales parameters are influenced by the whole value chain. Therefore, optimizing the value chain of your products and services will lead to a higher competitiveness.
Figure 15. Cooperation in the value chain to improve the competitive parameters for the final product/service yields a better competitiveness. This is a motivation to cooperate on optimizing the value chain as a whole.
Development of cleaner products
The development projects at Berendsen have shown to be a success. During the last few years Berendsen has put new soaps, lotions, sanitizers, air fresheners etc. on the market with an improved environmental and safety profile. However, some barriers had to be broken down to reach the goals – and in some situations alternative suppliers had to be chosen.
One of the important barriers for Berendsen in Denmark is that they are operating on an environmentally demanding market whereas their suppliers e.g. in southern Europe do not meet the same demands from their main markets. Popularly speaking, clean in southern Europe means that it smells good of perfume whereas in Denmark perfumes are often undesired because of the ability to cause skin irritation and allergy. For a relatively small player like Berendsen (compared to some big suppliers) it can be difficult to influence the suppliers when the preferences on the markets are so different.
Overcoming barriers
“The best advice that can be given is to be patient and persistent in the dialogue with your suppliers”, says Jeppe Frydendal from FORCE Technology. For Berendsen one of the successes came when their major supplier understood that complying with the demands of the Danish market was to be proactively complying with the demands of their own main markets in southern Europe.
Future outlook
For Berendsen developing a new product and putting it on the market does not mean that the job is done. They are always looking for further improvements based on tendencies on the market as well as the newest scientific knowledge as is expected from a market leader.
Further information
For further information contact Mr. Jeppe Frydendal, FORCE Technology
jpf@force.dk
+45 72 15 77 00
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Version 1.0 March 2006, © Danish Environmental Protection Agency
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