Insight

With over 60 years’ experience, and a constant desire for dynamic development, THALE Sp. z o.o, Sp. k., the owner of the Niczuk brand, has established itself as a leading supplier of fixing systems within the Polish market.

THALE was initially founded in the 1950s as a small workshop focused on providing locksmith services, before developing its production for warehouse racks with self-propelled ladders and elevators for their operation. In the 1960s the company focused on mass produced products, such as car jacks, suspension elements and subassemblies, which were present on the automotive market at that time.

During the years of economic transformation and changes within Poland, new opportunities for the company’s development appeared. It was during this period the board decided to introduce a new series of products – pipe clamps. This was a turning point for the business and provided a new direction for its development – to become the main supplier of installation fixtures on the Polish market. Over the years, more than 740 products used in the installation industry have been introduced to the Niczuk brand offer, which today constitutes a complete system.

“Our strength and high market position in the installation fixtures industry is the result of experience and the emphasis we put on every single detail to ensure the safety of the users, of the installation, and the entire structure,” states THALE. “Our products must meet the highest quality and strength requirements. We are also constantly developing our products to meet the growing demands and needs of the market. We not only improve their ergonomics, but also the quality of materials and coatings used for their construction, as well as take care of the aesthetics and compatibility of the whole system for fixtures.”

Throughout this period the share of export sales as a sum of total sales has been growing year-on-year, with the company adopting a new strategy to achieve dynamic growth in the future. “Our new strategy to grow exports is based on three main pillars. The first and most important pillar is building our own distribution network in selected countries. In this way, we already operate successfully in the Baltic states, Hungary and Romania. Currently, there are advanced activities aimed at building foreign branches from scratch in other markets, where our high-quality products will be appreciated by customers. Our strategy assumes the functioning of local entities according to all the standards of the local market – while ensuring service standards that meet the expectations of the domestic market,” explains THALE. “The second pillar of export sales development is cooperation with local independent distribution companies and wholesalers. This way we reach our end customers and we already have agreements in Greece, Italy, Russia, Denmark, Spain and Ukraine. We are also currently conducting advanced talks about cooperation between companies in several new markets. Finally, the third pillar is cooperation with local companies based on consignment warehouses.”

As a business THALE started its exports by focusing on the neighbouring markets, where logistics costs and operation are similar to the domestic market. However, it has not closed itself off to the chances and opportunities to enter the markets located a little further afield. For instance, after making a contact at a previous trade show, it now works with a company in South America.

In-depth product portfolio

A key part of THALE’s ability to develop its export sales is its in-depth range of Niczuk branded products. The product portfolio includes anchor fixings, fastening and connecting elements, pipe clamps, channel systems, accessories for mounting, roof support systems, wire rope suspension systems, fixed points and sliding plates, as well as stainless steel products and hot dip galvanised products.

 “As a business we are able to work alongside customers at the design stage, using our proven solutions and extensive experience, to ensure proper use of our products – whilst taking into account the specificity of the structure and following safety guidance,” points out THALE. “We have the largest department of fixtures designers in the country, which helps us realise complex projects for a variety of applications, including the suspension and support of sanitary, ventilation and air conditioning units, as well as other installations.”

This enables THALE to provide support in designing installations for industrial, public utility, commercial and residential construction, with the company delivering Niczuk branded products to the construction sites of nearly 1,500 customers in 2020 alone.

As part of its design support, THALE also provides a CAD library of its entire range, both in 2D and 3D format. In addition, the company has introduced a new Revit program, which facilitates the flow of information between the designers, contractor and investor by improving the design process.

“As part of this program we can provide innovative calculation software for selecting products according to installation specifications, which helps save customers time and energy,” states THALE.

The calculation software includes three calculation modules, with the first being Beam, which allows the user to determine the stress values in the assembly profile and the deflection arrows of the profile – depending on how the element is supported and on the values of applied forces.

The next module is Frame, which is designed to determine the appropriate elements to build a 3D frame under the given loads. Finally, there is the Compensations module, which is used for determining forces acting on fixed points, thermal elongation and stresses in a pipeline. Calculations are made for one of the five compensation schemes - type L, U and Z, no compensation and spool pieces.

Alongside all of this, the company also provides professionals with a library of schematics for products in its Autodesk Revit software. This software can be used for Building Information Modeling (BIM) and allows customers to use a smart model-based process to plan, design, create and manage buildings and infrastructure elements.

The software also helps installation designers to discover optimal solutions and opens the way to increasing creativity and innovation, as well as giving the opportunity to share work, which means that many team members can work on a design at the same time using a centrally shared model. The program improves the coordination of work between the architect, constructor and installation designer, so that the risk of errors resulting from data conversion can be reduced and the design process is more predictable.

“As a business it is vital that we are able to understand our customers’ needs and flexible enough to meet them and provide an individual approach – thanks to having our own production capabilities,” states THALE. “A big challenge is the speed of design development and efficient logistics at the investment stage, but as a company we can meet this challenge and provide the necessary answers. Our company is also distinguished by the fact that we are less afraid of developing our business. By having better contact with the customer, we can make decisions about increasing technical support or other activities faster.”

Innovation and development

For over 60 years THALE has been offering products of the highest quality and it has been able to do so thanks to its research and development laboratory, which is equipped with the latest material testing machines. “Our R&D laboratory enables us to design and test completely new solutions in the field of fixing systems. The technical approvals and certificates that our suspension systems have achieved are proof that we are the right partner for customers,” mentions THALE. “In our opinion, one of the biggest impacts on the sector of installation fixing systems, in addition to the economic situation within the building construction market, is the innovative system solutions a business can provide and how they help improve the installation assembly stage and, consequently, save time and money during the whole assembly process. The company whose new standards will be accepted by the market will impose development directions for the whole industry.”

Long-term strategy

THALE’s long-term strategy is to participate further in larger projects of a diverse nature – such as infrastructure investment, hospitals, etc, and to carry on meeting its customers’ varying needs. “We want to develop our system and offer so that we can cover other fields and move towards a wider use of products,” states THALE. “To have all the solutions in your system – that will meet customers’ needs –

means that as a business you can provide a comprehensive service. Large projects are characterised by the need to provide a huge amount of support at a high-level. That is why we will continue to underline our ability to offer technical support and guarantee the highest quality of the products. The coming years may be hard and customers, and investors, tend to make decisions based on the price. However, this may be fatal, hence the importance of highlighting the role of quality and reliability. Customers expect a reliable, professional partner and that is what we can deliver.” 

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