CONTENUR

CONTENUR

One of the main innovations of Contenur in the last years has been the design and the fabrication of side-loading containers in plastic. Side-loading containers are very big containers that are collected automatically, and Contenur decided 15 years ago to produce these containers that originally were fabricated in metal to fabricate them in plastic. And the main advantage for the customer for fabricating these containers in plastic basically is the durability of the product. It can stand all the heats that can be given to the container, and basically it lasts a long number of years without any rust and without any deterioration.

Once Contenur became the market leader in the fabrication of side-loading containers they decided that there was a great opportunity to make a more attractive product. And they were looking at this time for some additional aesthetical content of the container, they were looking for circularity, they were looking to produce a product that was more friendly for the user, which is the citizen at the end.

Their innovation process is a process that is driven by Contenur in which they are including internal inputs and external inputs, and help from different suppliers. The first step, of course, is the specification, which is built on the bases of our regular inputs from customers and their own knowledge. The second step is the design: they tender out the design of the product and then they chose several designs that we like. The third stage is a focus group. A focus group is a group of customers and citizens giving their opinion about our new designs compared to the existing products in the market and Contenur products. Then, after this focus group they have chosen the definitive design, and then it comes the technical part, the 3D design of the product that is produced by ourselves, and then the mold. And then de contract manufacture of the mold, that is done out of the company.

It has taken nearly two years from the original decision of developing the product until they have the physical product that is saleable. They have spent approximately 4.5 to 5 million euros in investments of different molds. They have there a lot of injection molds bigger and smaller, of all sizes, and it has taken approximately three people from their research and development department working full time on the project.

They are quite happy about the results. Approximately between 40 and 50% of the pipeline of new contracts in this category is coming from this product, Oval. But there are also two side effects. The first side effect is that if the right aesthetics are there, they are realizing that they can offer this solution into new markets, into new geographies. And a very clear example of this is France, where they are starting to succeed with this product. And the second side effect is that they are also seeing that customers are ready to pay a premium price if they consider that this product is going to be better perceived by the citizens.

They are always working in future projects in many different fields. Focusing on Oval, they are currently working in smart accessories that will help customers to reduce their cost of collection and also to increase the recycling rates. This is basically solutions about access control for users and also different types of sensors.