The Concrete Network
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  • This is the front of Ideal Work's building, where inside they have devoted 3,000 square feet of space for use as a showroom.
  • This is Ideal Work's stock of stamps, along with some samples of the stamped patterns on concrete of different colors
  • In this area of the showroom, architects and homeowners can see displays of concrete stamps, Sassoitalia (Ideal Work's exposed aggregate system), Ideal Wall vertical stamping, microtoppings and acid stains. Contractors can also bring customers here to show them design options.
  • Another view of the showroom
  • This panel displays details about the product, so the customer can learn more about its applications.
  • This is an exhibition area for tools and stamps, so contractors can see all the tools they can choose from.
  • Ideal Work also has a mobile showroom that they take with them to industry trade shows.

As one of the top suppliers of decorative concrete products in Europe, Ideal Work, based in the Veneto region of Italy, offers nearly any type of product you can imagine, including hundreds of stamp designs, concrete stains, microtoppings, and vertical concrete systems. To display their mind-boggling array of products, and to showcase the applications for each, they converted 3,000 square feet of space in their office building into a decorative concrete showroom, open to architects, homeowners and contractors. Luca Seminati, Ideal Work's managing director, recently shared these photos of the showroom with The Concrete Network, and we asked him to tell us more about the motivation behind it and what the benefits have been since the showroom opened to the public in May 2010.

CN: Why did you feel the need establish a showroom?

LS: We think it's important to SHOW the contractors what they can do with our products. We also want to show the architects and the homeowners what our products look like.

CN: How many visitors do you typically get in an average week?

LS: Usually in the busy season we can have 50 to 80 customers come here each week. We also use this area for making presentations with new contractors during demos.

CN: What are some of the elements you have on display, and how do they showcase your work?

LS: We divided the area to give each "system" a specific space. For each system, there is a panel with a description of the product. Usually every system has 16 big samples with different colors and textures on display.

CN: What was involved in building the showroom in terms of cost, materials, and time?

LS: It is a big investment. We spent a lot of time to plan the showroom, then it took a lot of time to prepare more than 100 big samples, plus the cost of making the panels and the steel frameworks. It took about three months to prepare everything.

CN: How has the showroom benefited your business? What sort of comments do you receive from visitors?

LS: We have had a great result from it. We used to have another showroom, but smaller and not as nice as this one. I think we now have doubled the number of people coming here. This showroom is also a model for our contractors. A lot of them ask us to help them design the same kind of showroom.

Ideal Work s.r.l.

www.idealwork.com

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