Xella: A strategic reorganization to better build the future

In 2017, Cellumat joined the Xella France company, bringing together the two French players in aerated concrete. Benefiting from the synergies of production tools and improving the group's geographic network on French territory, these were the stated objectives of this union to support the commercial development of aerated concrete in France.

Xella France, with manufacturing units in Saint-Savin near Lyon and in Mios in Gironde, now benefits from Cellumat's establishment in the north of France thanks to its manufacturing site in Saint-Saulve near Valenciennes.

A structured integration in 3 main stages

The entry of Cellumat into the Xella company is the subject of a progressive integration and structured according to 3 main axes: industrial integration, commercial integration and the integration of Cellumat products into the catalog of solutions offered by Xella France.

Industrial integration

Since 2018, the teams have been working to integrate the Saint-Saulve site as a fully-fledged industrial unit of the group. The site, which now manufactures products for the two brands Ytong and Cellumat, has undergone investments, which will continue in the future, so that its manufacturing unit meets the Xella group's standards in terms of safety, quality and organization.

This industrial integration was led by Pierre Helvig, CTO of Xella France.

Pierre Helvig, who was appointed CEO of Xella France on January 1, 2019, has the particular mission of continuing and managing the entire integration of Cellumat.

Commercial integration

After a period of cohabitation of the 2 sales teams, their merger was decided and operated since June 1, 2019.

This newly formed sales force is headed by Dominique Granseigne, the new Sales Director since March 2019. It markets both Ytong construction solutions and Cellumat products.

This grouping of sales teams should enable efficiency gains in the short term by simplifying collaboration with traders and facilitating customer relations. thanks to the creation of Business Sales Manager positions, known as RVA, within Xella France.

These Business Sales Managers are spread across high-potential commercial sectors and their mission as regional key account managers aims to develop sales with CMIs and on projects.
collective and tertiary.

Integration of the offer

During 2019, the Cellumat brand became a product brand and has joined the Xella France portfolio. Today, it brings together Cellumat's flagship and differentiated products such as Celluforce, Passifbloc, Energiebloc and Gigabloc.

Some of these products will enrich the Ytong offering during 2020. For example, from January 2020, the Ytong Energie range will be created to bring together solutions for load-bearing walls in 20 and 25 cm with added insulation and ensuring high thermal performance thanks to R coefficients of 2,22 and 2,87.

The Maxi and Gigabloc solutions will be offered in addition to the Modulbloc products to constitute an extended offer making it possible to respond specifically to the construction of fire walls.
This range of large blocks will be completed in the second half of 2 with large prefabricated elements in sand-lime and then in aerated concrete in early 2020.

These developments will enable Xella France to offer an enhanced and coherent offering to provide construction industry players with construction solutions combining performance, versatility and energy savings, and meeting the requirements of the future RE2020 regulations. This new offer, gradually reorganized during 2020, will remain structured around the 4 main businesses of Xella France:

- Partition and interior design,
- Construction/Structural work (exterior walls, load-bearing or filling, with or without added insulation)
- Fire protection (fire walls)
- Thermal insulation

It will meet the needs of the 4 targeted markets:

- Detached house
- Collective housing
- Tertiary and industrial
- Renovation