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CoreBusiness E c h o E n g i n e e r i n g ’s H o l l o w C o r e N e w s
Volume 5 / 2008
Circulation 8.000 copies
Customer in
the spotlight:
Top Element
I
n September 1974 the Top Element
company began its involvement with
technical projects, specialising in the
heavy prefabrication sector including re-
inforced, pre-stressed concrete. T.E. col-
laborated with the German construction
firm Polensky and Zollner and is the oldest
and biggest company in Greece for heavy
Echo Engineering
prefabrication with reinforced concrete.
Founding members are Michael and Ko-
stas Charalampidis, President and Mana-
takes part in ging Director respectively. Specialising ex-
clusively in systems involving whole-body
applications of pre-stressed concrete
United Arab Emirates construction boom for use in the construction of industrial
buildings, schools, etc., large openings
and special manufacture in general. T.E.
has offices in Athens, and its factory of
T
33,000 m2 is located at the 71st km from
he significance of the Middle East is constantly increasing one stop shop for all concrete products”, says Managing Director
Athens on Lamia National Road.
for Echo Engineering. There is an enormous demand for Oommen Varghese.
new infrastructure. The United Arab
Top Element produces 100,000 m2 of
Emirates constitute the flourishing centre of Nael Cement Products produces all precast
structural elements annually, supported
this construction hotspot, where whole areas elements such as walls, sandwich panels,
by its thirty-four years of experience in the
of desert are being converted as if by magic
into modern cities. Echo Engineering is giving “ We cladding panels, facades, manholes, route
markers, precast beams, columns and girders.
heavy and light prefabrication sector, and
aims to meet the stringent requirements
this building activity a robust push in the back While the masonry block unit can produce
through close cooperation with Nael Cement
Products, one of the biggest precast companies
accept only 120,000 blocks per day, including insulated
blocks, hollow blocks, solid blocks and hourdi
of private and public institutions with a
variety of manufactured works, offering
direct, economic, qualitative solutions, in
in the Middle East.
the highest blocks. The capacity of the existing interlocking
pavers unit is 8,000 sq.mtr per day and the
a variety of constructions, such as: facto-
ries, biotechnical laboratories with large
Nael Cement Products is part of Nael General products are of various designs and shapes.
Contracting which was established in 1998
by Nael Rashid Saif Al Shamsi in collaboration
quality” Hollow core production
openings up to 50 metres, multileveled
buildings, offices, tourist venues, schools,
gyms, stadiums, free-standing residences
with Oommen Varghese, a civil engineer and a
or in grouped layout, horizontal and verti-
visionary technocrat. Nael Cement Products was No doubt, with a product line that extends from
cal silos and bridges.
set up in 2002. The company has been rolling out precast concrete the ubiquitous masonry block to the novel precast building, all made
walls and other structural elements for the last couple of years. with cement, Nael is probably one of the biggest players in this sector
Olympic Stadium
in the whole of the Middle East. Nael has eleven different factories
One stop shop spread across one huge 1.5 sq. km area in Al Ain.
Top Element - with its long experience, its
The existing Echo Engineering hollow core slabs unit can produce
involvement in the development of tech-
The greatest advantage of precast buildings is that the developers can 1,400 sq.m of hollow core slabs,. The Nael plant was the first hollow
nological applications and technology in
erect them immediately on their site. All the phases of construction, core line to be delivered by Echo Engineering to the Middle East.
Europe, its importing of modern mechani-
including the long curing period, become events of the past.
cal equipment and its constant attention
“Quality is one of our key focus areas. For this we are using state-
to improving the quality of its products
But precast concrete walls are just one of Nael’s products. “We pride of-the-art technologies and machineries imported from Belgium”,
– can guarantee the delivery of all kinds
ourselves on being the largest integrated concrete precast producer Oommen Varghese says.
of technical work on time and of high
in the private sector in the UAE. We start with cement and we have
all the concrete products that can be produced from it. We are a
Continued on page 4
2 3 4
quality meeting all modern requirements
of manufacture. Recently, the company
acquired and now operates special slip-
former machines from Echo Engineering
Graffiti artist New prestigious
for the production and application of
creates colour in project for Face/Face: 50 cm thick HCS, which are used to span
Echo’s grey ClimaDeck® Kishore Gogia large openings and bear heavy loads,
concrete world
Continued on page 2
Our Experience
Your key to success 1
Dear reader,
Sales Agents and Echo Enginee
Echo Engineering was founded out of the
ambition to maintain and further optimise
A
the Echo Group’s production department. t the end of September Echo “Thus the agents walked together with us on and we also involve our customers in this.
This effort to make our products as high- Engineering’s Sales Agents from the ‘Barefoot Path’ in Zutendaal, the green Administratively, as well as logistically and
quality and user-friendly as possible is four continents came together at heart of the Province of Limburg, not far technically, we want to acknowledge our
also one of our greatest assets. the company’s headquarters in Belgium. from Echo headquarters. In the evening at customer’s demands as well as possible
They are Echo Engineering’s eyes and dinner everything was again about our core and respond to them in the most appropriate
Quality and customer satisfaction were, ears abroad and are in direct daily contact business and the Echo Group in general. manner.”
therefore, central to the Sales Meeting with the customer in carrying out Echo’s In order to demonstrate how much we are
we recently organised. Our Sales Agents philosophy. all connected, Nael Cement Products was “The Sales Meeting was an absolute
from four continents were unanimous also present, our very first customer in the success”, concludes Kris De Meester. “The
in their conviction of the importance of “With our Sales Meeting we want to attain United Arab Emirates. They have decided agents were very curious about what is
Customer Relationships Performance. two goals”, Managing Director Kris De to build a second factory using new Echo going on in the markets of their colleagues
It speaks for itself that we, at Echo Meester explains. “On the one hand, there Engineering machines, and so again confirm and were keen to keep referring back to
Engineering, will continue to develop this is an exchange of information about new their confidence in our company. It is, of our ‘family bond’. For that is our strength:
approach further in the future. For it is products and machines and new markets course, wonderful and very motivating that we are one big family. The Sales Agents will
our task to keep earning the confidence and market tendencies. On the other hand, our Sales Agents took that message with also be able to transfer the know-how which
of the customer. The fact that we are we can get together informally, which is also them.” typifies the Echo family to their customers
succeeding in this task with flying colours important and for which we but rarely have - both in the technical field, and as far as
is evident, among other things, from our the opportunity.” Family bond new machines and new applications from
cooperation with Nael Concrete Products the Echo Group are concerned. You only
- one of our partner companies in the Confidence endorsed During the Sales Meeting attention was also have to think of dB-Deck and ClimaDeck,
Middle East which is very satisfied with paid to Customer Relationship Performance. which are discussed elsewhere in this Core
Echo Engineering and which keeps on “During the meeting there was room “The customer is central to everything we Business.” ■
calling for our products and services for for playful activities”, recounts Paulette do”, Paulette Steegmans points out. “Our
the on-going expansion of its productive Steegmans, Customer Service Manager. Sales Agents operate out of this philosophy
capacity.
The confidence we are receiving from
our customers across the whole world The Sales Agents walked together with the Echo Engineering people along the ‘Barefoot Path’ in Zutendaal, the green heart of the Province of Limburg, not far from Echo headquarters.
demonstrates to us that we are pursuing
the correct strategy. No complicated
hocus pocus, but simple and efficient
high quality solutions based on over 50
years of hollow core experience.
We all warmly welcome you to our Echo
Family. Visit us and we’ll visit you. Let the
‘Echo’ spread - because your success is
our core business.
Enjoy your reading,
Marc Cuyvers
CEO Echo Group
Graffiti F
rom 5 August until the end of at the Mural Fest 2K7 in Winnipeg, Canada.
September Echo Engineering’s At this prestigious festival he created a self-
production site in the Belgian town portrait 95 m² in size.
artist of Houthalen provided the setting for a new
artistic project of RESM art. The young
Belgian graffiti artist Marco Scarpato,
Mechanical manufacture in
paint
creates with the artistic pseudonym ‘RESM one’,
magically created the very best with his Through working together with the Echo
spray can and paint brush and provided group, RESM art realised its biggest
Continuation of page 1
colour in one of the company’s production halls with
a contemporary commercial image.
creation to date: a wall painting of no less
than 300 m² - a creation which had been
Echo’s grey
developed completely in consultation with
Customer in This project was certainly not RESM one’s
prototype. With more than ten years of
Echo Engineering and which literally set the
mechanical manufacturing character of the
the Spotlight concrete professional experience, he left the world of
illegal graffiti long behind him. The formation
of the RESM art enterprise in 2001 confirms
company in paint. Between the technical
drawings and cog-wheels admirers of
the graffiti work are granted a view into
world the unique, professional character of his
graffiti. Last year ‘RESM one’ was a guest
the production hall and a life-size artistic
representation of the production. ■
Marco Scarpato (RESM one) worked for two months on this gigantic wall painting.
thus eliminating the need to employ
many columns and use connections.
T.E. is actually a pioneer in this field
of construction throughout the whole
of Greece and with its 34 years of
experience is able to undertake big
projects like stadium grandstands,
underground parking areas, shopping
malls, etc. The Tennis Court in Athens is
probably one the most famous projects
Top Element has ever realised. ■
2
ering in line during successful Sales Meeting
“We are one big family”
The Sales Meeting is a perfect opportunity for exchanging information and getting together informally. The agents were keen to keep referring back to the ‘family bond’.
New prestigious
project for ClimaDeck®
A
fter the impressive buildings for Radiation and convection
global companies Oiltanking and
Bayer, a new prestigious project has What is interesting about ClimaDeck is that
been announced in which Echo’s ClimaDeck the pipes are placed within the concrete
plays a major role. This time the revolutionary floors slabs, so that the total thickness of
floor slab ensures an energy-saving element the concrete is heated or cooled down by
in an extravagant design. the water that flows through the pipes.
Heat and cold are given off by the whole
The authorities that will occupy the building, concrete surface according to the principle
the provincial government of Limburg and of radiation and convection, which creates
ICT company Cegeka, are not international a wonderful feeling of comfort. It offers a
players like Oiltanking or Bayer. But the continuous, constant and balanced indoor
style of this project is certainly world-class. climate with the added benefit of a hefty
Among other things, the building is going to energy saving. ■
be shared. This sharing was a determining
factor in the design, incorporating two
slanting towers - one tower for Cegeka and
one tower for the Province of Limburg.
Building for the long term
In the energy area this project also departs
from the norm. The principals and the
designers want to create a breakthrough
with regard to building office buildings
ecologically and for the long term. The
designers want to drive back energy use
to 25% of normal use for a similar building.
That is why they chose, among other things,
triple glazing, a heat pump and as the cherry
The degree of inclination of the two towers
on the cake ClimaDeck’s concrete core determines the unique emission from this
activation. ClimaDeck project.
Our Experience
Your key to success 3
Continuation of page 1
FACE Kishore Gogia
Echo Engineering
takes part in FACE Sales Agent in the Middle East
United Arab Emirates
construction boom
Favorite selling argument?
Expansion “Our experience covers more than half a century. With
that experience I can really paint a good picture of the
With on-going expansion leading to the Echo Group’s know-how and customers find that very
addition of two more block factory units, appealing. Investors in the Middle East are often new
8 more hollow core production beds to the business and are looking for a partner who is
and an additional 2,400 tons of cement demonstrably trustworthy. We can provide that trust.”
production capacity, Nael Cement
Products is all set to be considered as a Biggest concern for investors in the Middle
market leader in the precast industry. East?
Nael Cement Products is undertaking
a major expansion of its production “They are looking for comfort and safety. Although Echo
facilities by the first half of 2009, aiming Engineering can offer competitive prices, money is not
to cater to the ever increasing demand for the overriding factor here. What the customer does
its precast products. For this expansion want is the certainty that you know exactly what you are
the company, among other things, is doing and that you can guide him from beginning to end
calling once more on the expertise of in his process.”
Echo Engineering, which shows the
increasing importance of the Middle East Future challenges?
as a marketing area.
“Transferring our extensive know-how to our customers
and from that perspective further expanding Echo
Engineering’s base in the Middle East.”
Personal details
Name: Kishore Gogia
Place of residence: Dubai
Echo Engineering and Nael Cement Products
secure their cooperation with a second delivery of 8 Company: WEBAU
more hollow core production beds. In the photo we
recognise from left to right Kishore Gogia and Marc Has been spreading the Echo philosophy for more than 6 years.
Detournay (Echo Engineering) and Nael Rashid Saif
Al Shamsi and Oommen Varghese (Nael Cement
Products).
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Our Experience
4 Your key to success
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