Case Study: Increased Market Reach through an Online Marketplace
Gonvarri Industries, one of the leading European steel and aluminum processing companies, is consistently using Vanilla Steel to better manage its inventory in Europe. Gonvarri offers prime as well as excess steel from 10 different plants on a weekly basis on Vanilla Steel. As one of the early adopters, Gonvarri was able to take part in the general development of the platform and also took advantage of the value added by Vanilla Steel: more than 150 new clients showed interest in Gonvarri´s material during its engagement on Vanilla Steel, material was sold every month since the start of the collaboration and margins increased in 90% of bundles sold when compared to their offline channels.
Selling immediately available material usually represents a different combination of problems depending on the industry player. Gonvarri used to spend a lot of time liquidating their stocks due to non-manual and analog processes. This usually meant a low turnover due to a limited buyer reach, and prices were not being maximized.
Through an easy and digital product, Vanilla Steel was able to offer different solutions to each situation Gonvarri was facing:
“We are using Vanilla Steel from 2020 as a complementary sales channel, and we are more than happy with the results. During this period we sold more than 7 thousand tons of overrolling and declassified material. Not only can we easily access the trusted and international buyer base, but we are also able to quickly convert stocks into cash, and sell with higher margins compared to other offline channels.”, says Juan Silvestre Latorre, Corporate Sales Director at Gonvarri Industries.
The solution offered by Vanilla Steel aims to digitally connect Suppliers to a vetted buyer base in more than 65 countries. The competitive bidding process grants all buyers the same chances to buy the offered lots - with a few clicks buyers can send their bids. For suppliers there's a favorable position compared to offline processes:
“It was also very satisfying to see how our successful collaboration evolved. We started with a focus on our core region (Spain), but after 2 months of positive results, we expanded the collaboration to plants in two more countries. Every month we have new clients brought by the platform and now we reach clients in new geographies with very little effort and with very good results regarding margin”, says Juan Silvestre Latorre, Corporate Sales Director at Gonvarri Industries.
“We have had a very close partnership with Gonvarri since the beginning of Vanilla Steel. They were one of the early adopters during our Beta period. We are proud to help them improve their KPIs, but none of this would have been possible without their openness towards digitalization and the company’s inherent attitude of continuous improvement”, adds Simon Zühlke, Co-founder and Chief Commercial Officer at Vanilla Steel.
Vanilla Steel has trusted Gonvarri in being one of the few pilot suppliers of the new E-Shop tool, where buyers can cherry-pick material and buy it without waiting for the auction process to finish. Just after 10 days, Gonvarri has already seen multiple sales on their E-shop, which is targeted towards prime and 1st choice materials - an improvement in product range, which Vanilla Steel has been working on creating for the past months
Information about Vanilla Steel
With more than 2,000 registered buyers and 250 suppliers, Vanilla Steel is Europe’s leading independent metal marketplace. In addition to carbon flat and long steel, the company also lists stainless steel and aluminum. Every week, +20k tons of material immediately available is listed, with the majority being prime quality steel. Besides its E-auction tool, the company offers an RFQ-Tool, an E-Shop solution, Logistics and Payment services.
Information about Gonvarri Industries
Gonvarri is a global industrial group acting mainly in the steel and aluminum processing market. The company has more than 60 years of experience and has a presence in 25 countries, as of 2021 revenues were above 4 billion euros, coming from its four business lines.
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