“Technical products can be cool”

Domenico Ciaglia: Arexons has a long and reputable history that goes back to its establishment in 1925. Over the years, Arexons had focused its attention on capturing the full value of the Italian market, and has grown to become Italy's leading car care and MPP (multi-purpose product/lubricant) company. Because of this effort, export sales never received the full attention deserved, to help position the company and its products adequately internationally. With this said, over the past year, with the support of our shareholder Petronas/PLI, Arexons has embarked on an international growth program aimed at bringing its value proposition and high-quality brands and products to customers in many countries across the world; such internationalization strategy in the DIY environment is also underpinned by our recent direct participation, also as main sponsor of the event, at the recent Global DIY Summit held in Berlin in May 2017. Internationally, Arexons products are currently available in over 40 countries in different continents such as: Italy, France, Spain, Poland, Belgium, the Netherlands, UK, Austria, Hungary, Romania, Malaysia, South Africa and more.

Europe comes first for Arexons; this is because of the proximity to the markets in this area (with our HQ and plant being near Milan, Italy), as well as the common cultural ties and consumer habits within the region. Also, the major DIY retailers and stores are, more and more, operating on a regional basis; as such, we have started to look at Europe as a single market, albeit with its own unique local peculiarities and specificities. Besides Europe, we are dedicating great attention also to Turkey, the Middle East, South East Asia and North America.

The DIY store as a distribution channel is critical for our products because it provides the service proximity and service (the last mile) which is important to the professional and consumer in every local market. We see the DIY distribution channel as our partner in not only extending to the final customer our full offering, but as an opportunity to provide, with and through them, our expert advice and support. We have registered that the DIY channel is growing and that this is because it has made efforts to go beyond just supplying products…