Interview with Manuel Baltanás, Key Account Manager of MATIMEX.

1. Let us to know you better:Name and Surname: ManuelBaltanás ManzanedaLocation:Almazora (Castellón)Position: Key Account Manager¿Could you describe us what are the main functions?My role is the management and key account management as well as promotion of our products and services to professionals.2. You know deeply the world of management and advice ceramic product. ¿What is your vision of what a customer is looking for or wishes to find in Matimex?Our customers basically, are looking for security at Matimex. We are part of one of the most important Tile Group of the World, Gruppo Iris Ceramica. This fact gives us the ability to provide innovative products to the market and overall quality products, which makes us to be one step ahead of our competition.The latest example of this, have been the new technical porcelain collections, the largest made to date in a format 300cmx150cm. On the other hand, our client is looking for the calmness that offers our competitive group of people committed to our work. Our mission is to fit the aesthetic which our customer dreams to the technical features necessary for each project. We realize their ideas. This is the culture of our firm.3. Matimex currently is consolidated as a leader in Spanish ceramic flooring and wall covering market, this success is thanks to the professionalism and the commitment of its team over many years. ¿What are the professional challenges you have faced in recent years?The most important challenges we have met have always been to seek technical solutions to the specific needs of our customers. It is also the most exciting of mywork. Recommend ventilated facade systems, technical ceramic flooring, dry-stone system, and even advice on the execution of a building. Offer the market all the solutions that manufacturers do not usually offered. Be ever vigilant to emerging needs and find appropriate solutions.4. The added valoe which is to characterize Matimex is its commitmentto the environment ¿How and what extent this policy is taking shape in your work? Fortunately every day more people are committed to the care of the environment, trying to leave a better world to our children.This commitment to caring for our planet passes from the development of new technologies likeACTIVE Clean Air & Antibacterial Ceramic, the manufacture of our materials with a minimum of 40% with recycled materials or up to 100% in some cases.And all of this are certificated by Bureau Veritas, ISO and ANAB. Ecology is definitely part of the DNA of our company.5. From your point of view, What means the product Active Clean Air & Antibacterial Ceramic™ IRIS/FMG in the world of ceramics?ACTIVE Clean Air & Antbacterial Ceramic is an important step toward a better World. It is the result of more than 6 years of research and work, although we launched it to the market one year and a half ago and it is patented by our Group.It is a titanium dioxide treatment applied after manufacture in micro-metric, and in contact with light, either natural or artificial, causes the photocatalysis, similar effects to the photosynthesis of the plants and with three very important characteristics;- Purification of the environment by accelerating the oxidation of the elements likeNOx and particulate matter.- Anti-bacterial action, eliminating up to 100% bacterial strains.-The ease of cleaning. For example, tiles placed on facades can be exclusively and fully clean by rainwater.ACTIVE Clean Air & Antibacterial Ceramic is a development in which we work every day. Although the product has several and prestigious accrediting certificates, we continue deepen and researching, currently with a team from the University of Milan in the research and development of new benefits that contribute to sustainable architecture.6. ¿What actions are you developing right now? ¿In what projects are your currently working?We are currently working hard to present all technical developments that we have available: New Ventilated Façade System, Dry-stone System (Freefloor), new systems that reduce the maximum percentage oferror in placement and facilitate to the maximum work to installers (TREND2GO) and of course ACTIVE Clean Air & Antibacterial Ceramic.7. ¿What are the main future projects and challenges of Matimex medium term? In addition to our specialization in public places pavements and shops, we are promoting other lines where we also consider necessary, such as Hotels, Hospitals, Shopping Centres, Medical Centres, … Our main challenge is to increase the confidence of our customers and to continue giving the role of advisers about pavements, as they used to see us. To think of Matimex is to think about the absence of problems.Thanks to the work done, now we work with customers, who have previously carry out at almost every project with a different supplier and luckily for both sides now we are advising and delivering solutions to some big firms many years ago.8. A desire to the company and the sector for 2012. For the tile industry in general, my desire is that we invest and work more in research and development, something that has characterized us until today and makes us different from other manufacturer countries.Working exclusively for the prices, always is to the detriment of quality.The dream of our Company is to continue fighting hard to maintain and enhance our image and our figures, of course, and can further rely on this great group of professionals, a group of colleagues so committed to the Company and the evolution of it.