Dennert
Dennert’s ambitious, yet humbling goal, has always been to develop, produce and sell building materials and solid houses
Dispelling tradition
Dennert’s ambitious, yet humbling goal, has always been to develop, produce and sell building materials and solid houses
Dennert’s founder, Veit Dennert, had a simple vision – make house building fast, simple and safe. This vision has been consistently optimised over the company’s history. Today, Dennert has a strong group corporate identity through which its various business units create original products that revolutionise the somewhat traditional construction sector.
Established as Dennert Construction Material Trading in 1933, the company began manufacturing in 1948, after the Second World War left Germany with a shortage in building materials. Not long after that, Dennert began to focus on traditional housing construction. In the 1970s, the development of a complete pre-cast compound unit system saw the company pass a major milestone. Since then, the consistent improvement of such ‘radical’ construction methods, as well as developments in materials, services and logistics, have been a focal point for Dennert. This desire to continually improve and innovate has led the company into many new market sectors – markets that are now dominated by Dennert patents.
Veit Dennert KG and Dennert Massivhaus GmbH have jointly managed the fields of building materials and solid houses since 2003, ensuring optimum customer management, swift clarification of technical questions and short channels of communication. This marriage means Dennert can continue to successfully implement its philosophy of cutting-edge products and professional customers service.
Dirk Denter, Dennert Massivhaus’ general manager, talks further about the group’s history and some of the challenges he faces: “I am the general manager of Dennert Massivhaus, a subsidiary of the Dennert Group, and have worked for the company for 18 years. I see my job as a challenge because the Dennert philosophy is that everybody should have his or her own house. A member of Germany’s top 100 most innovative mediumsized companies, Dennert Massivhaus’ task is to facilitate people in their quest to afford their own home by reducing the costs of a house by up to 15 per cent (when compared to other constructions such as timber or brick).
“Dennert was founded in 1933 as a general partnership. Its main goal has always been to develop, produce and sell building materials and solid houses. Our turnover was 65 million euros last year and we have 520 employees. We manufacture in ten locations across Germany (eight in Bavaria, two in Thuringia) and have two license partners, one in Vienna and one in the Ukraine who produce and sell houses according to our Iconhouse concept for their domestic markets. We also have extensive knowledge in the field of insulating materials, where we manufacture Dennert Poraver expanded glass spheres and Dennert Poratec mineral form boards. These products are produced in Canada and Germany. To sum it up, the Dennert Group is based on three pillars: building, living, and insulating.”
Continuing, Dirk tells Construction Today Europe more about how Dennert prides itself on being a single point of contact for the customer: “Dennert does not have one product group or range, but a product spectrum that it modifies and adjusts according to individual demands. Because of our company structure, we have short communication channels, enabling us to respond rapidly and competently to our customers’ needs. Customers are aware that they can approach us and we will solve their need, whatever it may be, while acting as a single point of contact.”
Talking more specifically about the Icon-house, Dirk says: “The Iconhouse is the totality of all our building experience in its most beautiful form. When we speak of the perfect house today, we would have to say the Iconhouse, for its abundance in ideas, speed of construction and premium quality in each phase, is unique as a performance package.”
In order to ease the manufacture of the Icon-house, Dennert Massivhaus has optimised preliminary factory production and ecological building, allowing it to create products of the highest standard. Ultimately, such measures will also reduce cost: “We produce our solid Dennert homes in our factory in very much the same way as cars are produced. As a result, we are able to erect our homes onsite in just one day – this has obvious benefits. Anybody who builds a home with bricks and mortar knows how difficult it can be to organise the construction and therefore appreciates how easy it is to build with the timesaving Icon-house. I believe that ultimately, in the future, traditional methods of construction will become too expensive for the German homeowner and prefabricated homes will dominate the market.”
Quite often, the quality of a home is a matter of luck. The outcome depends heavily on the day-to-day form of the workmen employed to carry out the task. The final price and building time are often incalculable. It is possible to put an end to this, according to Dennert, if you select one of its homes.
In choosing Dennert, clients do not need to wait months on end before they can move into their home. They can determine and control the construction process themselves, without needing to co-ordinate the various crafts on site. What’s more, clients lessen the financial burden of building a house and don’t have to spend an endless amount of sleepless nights worrying about issues such as ‘will the materials turn up?’
“Our key customers are private homeowners,” continues Dirk. “Our main objective is to offer the best solution and outstanding service in all of our fields. We also create low-energy consumption homes, which bring down the associated energy costs. Additionally, we concentrate our energy on finding new ways of reducing energy consumption, as we know our customers are not prepared to accept ever-increasing energy bills. I think this approach is very unique and distinguishes us from our competitors in many different respects.”
He adds: “Quality is essential to us, as we strive to build solid homes. We are certified and checked by DEKRA Real Estate – an independent authorised expert. All of our homes are produced to the same high standards of quality and customers can be safe in the knowledge that our solid homes leave nothing to chance. Quality is the most essential attribute for us – without quality you are nothing.”
With thoughts to the future, Dirk talks further about the current state of the sector: “We know that the situation in our industry in Germany is now much better than in previous years, with a lot of investment coming in. As leaders in our field, we are
excited about how the market will develop and believe our products and services are prepared for the requirements of the future.
“Our continuing focus on constant improvement and uncompromising commitment to research and development will become increasingly important for us in the coming years. We know we have quality concepts – our regular customer feedback surveys tell us this. This useful tool not only means we are aware of customers requirements, but also means we can adapt quickly to change.”
Concluding, he explains: “We want to stabilise our leading position in the market with a comprehensive service for our customers. Additionally, we intend to perfect our aftersales service with the aim of being recommended for future projects. At the moment we are building and selling our houses in the Czech Republic, Norway, Luxembourg, Belgium, Switzerland, Austria and Spain. In the next three years we want to expand our activities to the other European countries. We are ready for the European market – we are not waiting for the future to come to us, we want to form it actively.
“I firmly believe that our most important asset is our well-trained and highly motivated staff. Without them Dennert would never have come close to achieving what it has to date.”