Insulation industry news from Global Insulation

Germany: Wacker Group has started selling a variety of pyrogenic silica products from its HDK line on the CheMondis and Pinpools business-to-business (B2B) market websites that markets chemical raw materials and specialty products. The German chemicals company is trading venues and, over the long term, acquire new customers and open up additional marketing channels for its product portfolio. Pyrogenic silica has a wide variety of applications, including usage as a filler for silicones in thermal insulation.

CheMondis, a startup founded by the Lanxess specialty chemicals company, and Pinpools, introduced in 2016, are European B2B marketplaces for chemicals. CheMondis is now used by 650 companies to sell more than 7500 products. Pinpools currently hosts 500 active buyers and vendors. The marketplace serves as a trading platform for more than 5000 products with a focus on paint and coatings, construction and the food and animal feed industry.

Denmark: Rockwool plans to use Intershop’s commerce-as-a-service (CaaS) product for its online business-to-business (B2B) sales platform. The change is part of the company’s general digitisation strategy. The new system allows connectivity between a customer-relationship manager (CRM), product information management (PIM) and quotation system with the storefront.

“With our business running worldwide, being successful in B2B means multi-country, multi-currency, multi-brand management with complex sales channels that need to go hand in hand. We were looking for a commerce solution that allows us to target different channels individually, while being able to scale without effort. Intershop CaaS proved most suited for this purpose," said Mirella Vitale, Senior Vice President Marketing, Communication & Public Affairs at Rockwool Group.

A pilot of the new system is expected in mid-2019. Expansion across different channels will then follow.