Challenge

Dexia Bank (now Belfius) is still one of the largest players in the financial sector despite the crisis. From the start of 2009 through to the end of 2012, it was necessary to refurnish 820 branches. Besides new furniture the bank wanted customisation to reflect the kind of personal service its aims to provide. Dexia/ Belfius further required considerable flexibility, which necessitated an adapted stock policy.

Solution

Bulvano won the contract thanks to its working method. This involves a coordinating senior technician/engineer centrally controlling the different teams. Customisation was accomplished very efficiently through partnerships with renowned furniture manufacturers like Nurus (Turkey), Dietiker (Switzerland) and Wilkhahn (Germany). Thanks to these preferred suppliers, Bulvano was able to use their basic elements, while providing them with new underframes, for example. This approach resulted in the development of ‘stand-up information points’, whereby the bank employee stands alongside the client without any kind of hierarchy. As the size of the branches varies considerably and because the client and architect faced different challenges at each branch – with around 275 having to be modernised each year – Bulvano even constructed extra warehouse space so as to deliver just-in-time.

Result

The result was accessible, open branches where it is possible to conduct banking business transparently, with a lot of attention to the personal comfort of the end-client and the staff member. A blanket survey revealed that despite the change of name both parties still feel committed to ‘their’ bank partly thanks to the well thought-out use of colours.