Town hall meetings on Villeroy & Boch’s acquisition of Ideal Standard have been taking place across the company this month. Last week they came to Hull and Armitage to do a town hall for the UK-based employees.
Ideal Standard International CEO Jan Peter Tewes and Mohammed Hassan have been talking colleagues through what has been happening and why.
They also took questions from the audiences, giving employees the opportunity to understand a little more about the acquisition and share their views, and to understand more about what it means for the UK.
Key insights included the fact the two companies fit together well in terms of their complementary businesses in key geographies, such as the UK, Italy, MENA and Asia, the distribution channels, along with the product and brand positioning.
See below for Q&As from the session.
They also reminded colleagues to continue to consider Villeroy & Boch as a competitor until the merger is concluded, hopefully in Q1 2024.
The town halls continued in Armitage across last week led by Mark Barrett and Lisa Whitfield, ensuring those employees on shift patterns across the plant and distribution centre also got to participate.
Lisa said: “Thank you to everyone who attended the town halls and submitted their questions. I hope you found the answers informative. We were really appreciative of the participation within the events.
“We are also grateful to Jan Peter and Mohammed for coming to the UK and spending time with the team here and answering the questions and being direct and open with the teams."
Q&A Session
Here are some of the questions and answers from the sessions.
LOCATIONS
Q: What are the plans for the Hull premises? Will you be continuing to lease the property?
A: Decisions over the Hull premises remain under local management for the foreseeable future and there are no immediate plans to change location.
Q: What are the plans for the Dublin office?
A: Decisions over the Dublin office remain under local management for the foreseeable future. Alternative locations in Dublin are being explored with regards to office and showroom space but are very much dependant on being able to exit the lease on the current space.
Q: Will you be keeping the shared service centre in Bulgaria?
A: There are currently no plans to move or close the SSC in Bulgaria.
Q: How many of the V&B production sites manufacture sanitary ware and what is the total capacity?
A: Six of the V&B sites manufacture sanitaryware. We do not know the total capacity.
Q: Are the new company going to invest in the Armitage site, in training and the workers?
A: The new owners want to invest in and grow the business. The UK is an important part of this strategy. V&B have stated that they believe in the importance of having plants in close proximity to its key markets.
POST CLOSING PLANS
Q: How soon after the completion of the transaction could we expect to see some changes, what might that look like and what will the timeline likely be?
A: The integration process is being carefully planned and executed to ensure a smooth transition focussing firstly on day one priorities post completion but shortly after, the medium and longer-term plans. You will receive information about the integration plans as they develop. It is important to remember that before completion of the acquisition (closing), both companies continue to act independently with limited and strongly regulated interactions.
Q: Will V&B be our ‘owner/investor’ or will we fully integrate to become part of the same company / family – strategically, culturally, financially etc.
A: The integration process is still being worked as to how we combine the two companies but in the longer term the vision is that the joint company will have the best aspects and strengths of both organisations
Q: Will I eventually be able to specify V&B as an option where I have an issue with perception?
A: Yes, but it is important to wait until after closing. Remember until then we remain competitors.
EMPLOYEE MATTERS
Q: Can we get clarification is this a TUPE situation or is the employer still going to be Ideal Standard?
A: Your employer will continue to be Ideal Standard for the foreseeable future.
Q: Will the current levels of company contributions into our pensions remain the same when V&B purchase the business?
A: All T&Cs of employment will not change for the foreseeable future.
Q: Will the new owners be taking on the liabilities of the frozen UK Final Salary Pension scheme which ceased in 2013, Or will they look at moving these liabilities to a private pension provider?
A: The purchase includes taking on the responsibilities for the pension schemes.
Q: Will there be any redundancies?
A: The new owners want to invest in and grow the business. The UK is an important part of this strategy. Any redundancies or changes will be minimised as much as possible and they are not anticipated at this time.
OTHER
Q: What the company financial organisation look like – today we operate with a central entity and LRDs which deal with our customers with complex inter-company mechanisms to facilitate the relationships. Would we imagine this changing to a simpler structure under V&B? The original announcement mentioned ownership of only a few companies which didn’t include the LRDs.
A: V&B will be acquiring the three main holding companies of Ideal Standard Europe and 100% of Ideal Standard MENA. This includes all of the subsidiaries of the holding companies, including both commercial companies (LRDs) and operations companies.
Q: Can we return to Armitage Shanks as the name of the company and Ideal Standard as the secondary name? After all we were Armitage for a very long time, we are based in Armitage and it’s the Armitage brand that makes the money.
A: The Armitage Shanks brand will remain an important part of the company, but it is unlikely that the name of the company will change to Armitage Shanks