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 At Italcementi Group, research is a strategic asset aimed at creating innovation projects that follow up new market trends. Italcementi invests some 13 million Euro a year in Research and Innovation: its innovation rate – i.e. the ratio of revenues generated by innovation projects to total Group sales – is currently 4%, but the medium-to-long term goal is to bring it up to 5%.
Innovation applied to the continued search for sustainable architectural solutions represents for Italcementi the strategic lever to create its own competitive advantage, whilst contributing to improving the quality of life and the environment. The construction market is increasingly oriented towards advanced construction solutions which are sustainable and of highest levels of quality. In this context, Italcementi aims to become a cutting edge cement manufacturing group capable of transforming a commodity into a technologically advanced product at the service of the building community.
| Innovation Rate |
2007 |
2008 |
2009 |
2010 |
2011 |
| Mature markets |
2.9 |
3.4 |
3.8 |
4.7 |
4.6 |
| Emerging markets |
1.5 |
2.4 |
2.7 |
3.1 |
4.4 |
| Group |
2.5 |
2.9 |
3.2 |
3.9 |
4 |
Innovation in processes and products, but above all in ideas: this is what allows Italcementi to face new markets with new proposals, new services and new eco-sustainable solutions for the construction industry.
Key figures:
- About 170 people, including chemists, geologists and engineers, engaged in Research and Innovation activities in Italy and in France
- An annual budget of approximately 13 million euro destined to Research & Development activities
- About 0.5% of the Group’s turnover invested in Innovation (0.3% in R&D)
- 92 patents filed since 1992
- A corporate organisation strongly -oriented not only towards research but also towards the market
The Group’s growth vision and Research & Innovation strategy for new products and enhanced manufacturing processes hinge on Sustainable Development.
A fundamental element to success is the network of scientific
cooperation in Italy and abroad that includes research centres,
universities, architects, engineers, designers and businesses from the building community. Such shared effort is focused on reducing time to-market in terms of industrialisation and marketing of new products, services and processes. This approach integrates perfectly with the positioning of i.lab at the Kilometro Rosso Scientific Park where multidisciplinary Methodology provides key support to research and development activities.
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