The worldwide leader in steel abrasives and surface preparation solutions began the year with new ambitions and a branding renewal.

Shortly after celebrating its 60th anniversary, Winoa Group, the parent brand of W Abrasives™ well recognized for its expertise and service excellence, is entering in a new era. Long story short, the CEO explained to us in a previous interview that the growth plans for the next years would be based on three pillars: the offer agenda with a portfolio expansion, the green agenda with new sustainable commitments and the digital agenda with industry 4.0 implementations.  

To support this new start, the group is now taking a new start and changing its identity to support its new development ambition, with new shapes and new colours for this Winoa logo to make it look more modern. The grey colour refers also to its core business, metallic surfaces, and abrasive medias. Finally, the green dot represents its involvement in sustainable development, as the company commits itself to a global reduction plan in carbon emission and that all abrasives manufactured by Winoa are 100% recyclable.  

That’s not all. Originally under its W Abrasives™ brand, Winoa developed a large offer of unique services and technologies a few years ago including the famous WA Clean, the surfaces cleanliness measurement tool. Moreover, Winoa differentiation strategy now takes a step forward with the creation of two distinct business lines, services, and tech, supported by these new brands: W Care™ and W Tech™. W Abrasives™, the abrasives range, which also includes specialty products such as stainless-steel media and cut wire, will remain under this well-known W Abrasives™, as the global leading brand already distributed in 120 countries.

Regarding W Care™, this new business line refers to services related to all peening and blasting operations. The Winoa group has already been a provider of services for decades, starting with the opening of its first test centre in the early 70’s to the development of customer technical service teams. Three services were already well-known by its partners: testing, through its 4 test centres, which allow customers to send their parts to find out the best suitable abrasive media, depending on their issues; Consulting, which offers customized advice to improve blasting parameters; and Training, which is dedicated to increase the knowledge of customers on blasting processes and operations through on-site and practical trainings tailored to their applications. The service offer now extends its scope to provide so much more. With a team of 20 technical experts worldwide, customers will now be invited to request three new services: optimization, maintenance, and machine-upgrade. Optimization, which includes mechanical checks and results measurement on finished products, Total Machine Maintenance that includes repair & parts and annual service contracts, and Machine Upgrade & Overhaul to increase blasting machine efficiency. Moreover, the group has been building a network of contractors to extend its market coverage.

W Abrasives™ has already marketed some technologies developed by Winoa engineers such as WA 3D, or WA CLEAN. The group’s objective is now to go further in the offer of products, technological equipment and technologies, and is doing so by creating a new business line to support it: W Tech™. With the recent implementation of e-commerce websites in Brazil, Italy and Mexico, Winoa has already extended its scope with an extended offer, including products such as hoses, blasting equipment, repair parts, measuring tools & instruments etc... 

The group aims to be a global supplier of surface treatment solutions, including everything that could be useful or add value in shot-blasting operations. Regarding the existing technologies, they will be hosted under this new W Tech™ business line including new inputs, notably by taking advantage of what smartphone technologies and application stores are offering nowadays, with easier accessibility for the customers. It’s worth noticing that the Winoa technical experts are already all equipped with unique phone technologies such as the W Care app, which provides direct machine & process assessment to analyze potential cost reduction based on blast machine parameters, abrasive consumption, and applications. 

Finally, the group also looks for a global alignment between all its subsidiaries, by renaming all its entities worldwide under the “Winoa umbrella”. Thomas Abrasives (South Africa), for example, is now named Winoa South Africa, while Abrasiv Muta in Slovenia has taken the name Winoa Abrasiv Muta. 

Being more than an abrasives manufacturer now makes perfect sense as Winoa group transforms its businesses to become a global key partner in all blasting operations. The group now positions itself as the leader in all blasting operations…

 

For Information: 

Winoa

528 Avenue de Savoie

38570 Le Cheylas, France

Margot Alonso

External and internal communication officer

Tel. +33.6.43 66 51 65

E-mail: margot.alonso@winoagroup.com

www.winoagroup.com

www.wabrasives.com