For a few weeks, there has been a new advertisement for hearing aids on television that reflects Amplifon’s growth strategy in Spain, and that goes through the introduction in November in the country of its own brand of devices to improve hearing, as explained to elEconomista the General Director for Spain of the Italian multinational, Lorenzo Fiorani.
Amplifon has been the leader of the sector in Spain since it bought the Catalan Gaes in 2018 for 528 million euros, and currently the Spanish market is part of the Top 3 of the 26 countries on five continents in which the Milanese company has a presence.
At the national level, it has 700,000 clients that it provides service to through a network of more than 700 centers and a workforce of 2,000 people that in the last year has increased by 150 employees despite the pandemic, and that plans to continue adding troops in 2022.
Likewise, it has invested six million euros in improvements to its commercial network, incorporating technology for new diagnostic tests and personalized attention protocols. These resources have also served to improve its locations and open new centers to reach populations where it did not have a presence. Notable among the novelties is the new flagship store on Calle Fuencarral in Madrid, opened last month, with two floors and specializing in children’s audiology and hearing implants.
Amplifon does not offer regionalized business data, but Fiorani acknowledges that the arrival of Covid-19 was a severe blow to them, as it is a retail operator, especially due to the intensity of the pandemic in the area that encompasses southern Europe, the Middle East and North Africa. However, the Spanish market began a “rapid recovery” in the summer of 2020, and in the first part of this year they already returned to pre-pandemic levels.
The manager emphasizes that the current network of stores in Spain has already reached a good level of territorial coverage, so the priority now is to invest in improving customer service: “Only a small part of those who have hearing loss Take care, it’s our job to convince them and get them to overcome their reluctance to look older, because it’s a prejudice and in return they can have a better quality of life”.
To do this, technology and customization are the protagonists in Amplifon’s own brand hearing aids. Spain is the eleventh market in which Amplifon sells them, after its launch in Italy in 2018, and comes with an app that in the first phase of launch allows you to contact customer service and request an appointment, and in a The second phase -in a year and a half or two, depending on the country- will incorporate telemedicine services to facilitate direct communication with the hearing care professional and remote problem solving.
These are imported devices, since the local manufacturer that Gaes had, Microson, was restructured two years ago, after Amplifon joined the company.
“We have refocused Microson’s activity, and now it makes molds for behind-the-ear hearing aids, which are customized to fit the shape of the owner’s ear, and it also handles the repair service,” Fiorani details. They work for the Spanish market and there are 48 people, compared to 130 at the time of Gaes.