The FINANCIAL — This year Dio received the Golden Brand award for Favourite Brand – PVC Doors and Windows, Blinds.
The FINANCIAL — This year Dio received the Golden Brand award for Favourite Brand – PVC Doors and Windows, Blinds. “Dio has blinds in glass packaging.”Irma Daushvili, General Director at Dio, told The FINANCIAL. “We started making these products in Georgia for the first time. We also will have Pergola shades. This type of shade is for a greater area. And we think that this will increase our sales by 20-30%.”
Due to the range of its manufactured products, Dio has numerous customers – individuals as well as various leading organizations that operate in Georgia.
Dio has its own representatives in various regions of Georgia: in Batumi, Telavi, Kutaisi, Khashuri and Gori.
Dio possesses new, modern technically-equipped works that give the possibility to manufacture all the products of Dio at a supremely high quality level, and from European materials, on site. It is this that ensures the price stability and high quality of the company’s products.
Q. How would you summarise the year 2013 for Dio?
A. I wouldn’t say that it was particularly successful, because of the political and economic situation. There was a decrease of an estimated 10-15% on various products. We hope that the year 2014 will be much better compared to last year.
Q. What is the market share of Dio? Have there been any changes in its market share?
A. As you know, Dio makes various products. For example blinds, in the case of blinds our market share is 70%. Doors and windows are products from Germany and we target the high segment with these. Because of this our market share in the high segment is 40%. But in terms of shades our market share is 60-70%. There were not any significant changes in our market share last year. In terms of windows there was an increase because demand has increased for high quality products. But in regard to blinds, new companies came in who produce blinds of a low quality, for lower prices, and because of this there may have been a decrease. For shades, the demand is increasing and our market share remains the same as it was before.
Q. What can you say about your sales share? Has it increased or decreased?
A. We had estimated a 15-20% decrease.
Q. How does winning Golden Brand help your company?
A. Golden Brand is strong encouragement for companies and raises their profile. We believe that the population is interested in our company’s directions, and in the overall success of the company too.
Q. How useful is the Tax Free system?
A. Because of what kind of products we have, individuals do not use this. Neighbouring countries are the ones that use this service the most.
Q. How do you compete with other companies?
A. We try to offer special service to our customers and with this we try to be distinguished. This means that we offer a full range of services. Under the full range of services we mean measurement, montage, and we have qualified employees for each type of work. In many of the smaller companies one man simply goes and does everything himself. Yet one person doesn’t necessarily know how to do everything equally well. However, we have separate employees for the different jobs. We have a selling consultant, we have a team that works on measurement, and we have qualified industrial employees, which work with high quality plants. Almost all our plants are of German quality, the quality of the plants is European. In terms of blinds we have 5 kinds of plants. There aren’t any other such kinds of plants in Georgia except ours. This is the reason that our service is faster.
Q. What is the most important aspect for you in your relationship with customers?
A. We consider our customers’ interests carefully. We try to understand what the customer wants and we help them to make the best choice for them. We want our customers to be always satisfied with our products as well as with our service.
Q. What were the first steps your company ever took?
A. We started in 1994, and this was a very hard period. We were just 2-3 people trying to find clients. Blinds were not popular at the time. No one really knew what kind of product it was. We were trying to popularize them. And I think that our punctuality and responsibility was the reason that Dio finally arrived at the results it has today. You shouldn’t put the reason down to one’s clients, the reason for success is this.
Q. Do you export your products?
A. Yes we export our products to Azerbaijan and Armenia. We work on import and because of this we work for the South Caucasus market. But we don’t export to all of the South Caucasus as we don’t export to Russia.
Q. After the DCFTA agreement will you export to other countries?
A. DCFTA agreement itself means high quality standards. This factor will be advantage for us, as our products are always distinguished with high quality. Accordingly, it is preferable for Dio to have open European market and to take this opportunity. Because of the factor that our partners are from German and other European counties the product we have is always high quality and meets European standards. We are waiting for the 12% customs duty to be removed, to import from European countries for lower prices. And our products will become more competitive.
Q. What is the quality of your competitor companies’ products like?
A. There are companies which concentrate on quality, but there are also those who don’t. The price should not be the determinant because the quality of a product is determined not only by the high quality of the product itself but also by the high quality of the employees involved in its production. Employees need training to be highly qualified. They also need good salaries as incentives to work well. Because of this our company is strongly oriented on employees, and our prices reflect this. People as well as the Government should demand high quality products all round. Quality naturally increases prices. But in the event that the population can’t afford a product it would be more profitable to export it. Because of all of this the population needs higher salaries and better conditions.
Q. Did the recent political changes affect the situation on the market?
A. Yes of course, they affected our business as well as most other businesses. The first year of change always affects the development of a business. But before the new government properly forms itself and lays down the directions they have chosen to go in, it is always very difficult as you don’t know the priorities of the government. As you know, the priority used to be agriculture. This was the reason for the fact that construction businesses stopped. There were no longer such big projects as there used to be earlier. All of this affected our business.
Q. What are your plans for the future?
A. Dio has blinds in glass packaging. We started making these products in Georgia for the first time. We also will have Pergola shades. This type of shade is for a greater area. And we think that this will increase our sales by 20-30%.
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