Company visit - ITAB

The company visit was very educational in my opinion. Well… at least I learned more from it than by reading somebody’s article and then discussing it in class… But I guess we need both theory and practice in life.
I was amazed how well the company was doing in its domain(s). It focused on store layouts and equipment. These services will always be in demand simply because there will always be businesses that need to find efficient solutions for their store arrangement and outfitting. It’s like dentistry: you will always find clientele that needs teeth improvement.
In my opinion, one of the elements that made this company what it is today was the early age in which it entered the market. I believe that it started 40 years ago. It was there when these services were starting to be in demand. Plus, the company managed to adapt and expand, providing in time both the service and some of the equipment, diversifying its portfolio, reducing risk and dependability from the suppliers that produced the same equipment. It provides a great example of vertical integration, since it provides both the solution and the means to a problem. As we walked through the company, I could see that most of the store layout equipment provided for their clientele was organically produced. ITAB had machines that cut the steel, molded it; it had a painting division, binding division, electronics, delivery, etc.
What I found interesting was that they did not rely on advertising. After some clarifications, it became pretty clear why: ITAB relied on B2B relationships and most of the local clientele was already theirs. Due to the age of the company, it managed to recruit these businesses from the beginning. The company focused on a big portfolio of retail stores (not all of which Swedish) that gave the company enough work with their every newly opened store.
R&D was also strong. We saw a prototype for self checking products. Most of the stores today have a supervisor that randomly checks the clientele that uses this kind of service. This is done because it gives the customer the possibility to cheat (clientele may scan less products and thus pay less). But the problem arises as soon as the random check is done because the clientele may associate this action as an insult.
The new ITAB self scanning machine requires the clientele to put the merchandise on a belt after scanning. This belt weights the purchased article and correlates it to the scanned product. If the weight differs (within +/-1 gram), or an additional, not scanned object is placed there, then it detects this as an abnormality.
I believe that ITAB will have a good performance even during these times of recession because it mainly collaborates with retail stores that rely on low cost products like Metro, Kaufland, Ika, and so on.
I would like to see more of such visits in my future schedule.