Heinemann GmbH, now Vallox GmbH, played a significant role in Vallox’s efforts to expand its business to export sales. Success in Germany did not come easily, but close cooperation paid off.
Vallox’s first export efforts were done to the Nordic countries without a major success. In 1989, Vallox participated first time in an international trade fair by presenting its products in Frankfurt am Main at the stand of the Finnish Foreign Trade Union. Eventually, that proved to be a turning point for export sales. At the very end of the fair, in fact, after Vallox executives had already left for home, Horst Heinemann stepped into the stand. He, or his company, was interested in representing Vallox in Germany.
The starting point in the German market was difficult. There were no regulation regarding the ventilation in Germany in the early 1990s, and Vallox’s solutions were the first attempts in the battle against traditional ventilation solutions. The products had to be tailored to the local circumstances, which required a lot efforts in the product design. Two years after the first meeting with Horst Heinemann, in 1991, Vallox presented the first device tailormade for the German market at the Frankfurt trade fair. At the same time, Vallox and Heinemann signed the final agreement on the German agency.
Horst Heinemann worked hard to gain a foothold for Vallox’s ventilation solution in the large German market. He made an exclusive distribution agreement with Germany’s largest HVAC wholesaler, G&C. In early 1992, product training and marketing for wholesalers’ representatives began. The training was given by Olavi Suominen from Vallox and Horst Heinemann and Sylvia Will from Heinemann.
-Close cooperation between Vallox and Heinemann continued. In addition to the trainings, Vallox representatives joined also the customer meetings and marketing materials were prepared together. Heinemann appreciated the support Vallox provided in sales and marketing, tells Olavi Suominen.
At the latest, when Suominen and his family moved to Germany for six months in order to train the regional representatives of the company, Heinemann was convinced that Vallox was serious with its intention to enter the German market.
Markku Mäenpää, Vallox marketing manager at the time, says that Horst Heinemann was skillfully bringing the Finns and Germans together.
-We invited German ventilation designers as well as representatives of wholesalers and retailers to visit the Vallox factory in Finland. During those trips, we took the visitors also to the Turku archipelago and sauna was naturally one of the experiences. The Germans loved going the sauna and throwing steam, remembers. Mäenpää adding that “they also became fond of Vallox”.
There was a broad market for ventilation in the recently unified Germany. Gradually it became the main market for Vallox’s exports. Marketing also became easier as building regulations in Germany progressed. However, it took significantly longer time to reach significant commercial results than Vallox or Heinemann originally expected. Finally, in the beginning of the new century the exports to Germany became profitable and continued to grow steadily so that in 2011 the share of export sales exceeded the first time the domestic sales.
Vallox’s owner, Top Air AG, later acquired also Vallox’s German representative Heinemann GmbH. In 2018, the company changed its name to Vallox GmbH with the aim of strengthening the Vallox brand and facilitating sales and distribution in Germany.
In the early 2010s, Vallox made determined efforts to expand its exports to new countries, and today, in addition to Germany, export sales are strong especially to the Baltic countries, Poland and Denmark.