Solar Solution offers packages for solar installers, branded at AEG in Germany. For international markets the brands are Electrolux and Duracell. What is the strategy behind it with your brands in the solar markets?
Bertrand Chevalley: We are experts in bringing world brands to the solar industry with marketing and quality. This is what we do. Our strategy is to find partners and markets that are sensitive to these brands. Each of these brands has a different recognition in each market. We need to wisely select our supply partner, product range and brand.
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AEG, Electrolux, and since this year, it's DuraCell. What is the difference between them?
It's a difference in each country and each market. For instance, Electrolux brand is obviously more famous in Scandinavia, where it belongs. AEG is a German brand, but it's also quite famous in Benelux, France and obviously Central European countries.
And the Duracell?
Duracell is a typical worldwide brand. It's famous on all continents.
And it's focused on batteries, right?
Obviously, it is. But we can also bring solar panels with this brand together with the batteries or the storage systems.
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Do you offer new battery systems this year?
It is not only a new battery, it's a new strategy to address the commercial and industrial storage businesses. We open up from the private sector to more commercialized sector, growing with the need of our customers. There is rising demand for bigger storage systems in all the markets.
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How do you ensure the quality of the products that you offer under the umbrella of your brands?
First of all, we have a very strict selection of our manufacturing partners. We have to qualify them, inspect them and then we also have our own team in Asia inspecting each single batch of production. We give our own design and bill of material criteria and our own quality control sheet. So they can follow strictly independently and ensure us and our customers that we deliver the quality that matches with these powerful brands.
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That's a lot of effort you're doing to keep the quality as high as possible. Can the installers rely on this?
It's a lot of effort, yes, but this is why we are here. We cannot bring such big brands without having the related quality level.
You mentioned Scandinavia and the Benelux. Which other markets in Europe are interesting for you?
Basically, all the markets are interesting for us. We do well in Benelux. We could do better in Scandinavia. We also do well in France, in Germany and in Central Europe. But we would like to develop more business in the Mediterranean area, also in Eastern Europe. But what we also like is to address all the continents, all the markets, because our brands are powerful all around the world.
Interview by Heiko Schwarzburger
