About IKZ

IKZ

IKZ is the flagship brand of Germany's leading SHK trade publishing: the IKZ journals, published by the Strobel Media Group in Arnsberg, serve the sanitation, heating, air-conditioning, and plumbing trades with the technical knowledge, the business guidance, and the association news that the craft needs. The IKZ-HAUSTECHNIK, the brand's core title, is the official specialist journal of the Zentralverband Sanitär Heizung Klima (ZVSHK) and appears every 14 days with 35,000 copies, making it the trade's most widely distributed medium and the installers' most familiar companion. The IKZ family, including IKZ-FACHPLANER, IKZ-ENERGY, and IKZ-PRAXIS, covers the SHK value chain from the executing craft to the planning offices to the next generation, united on the ikz.de portal that serves as the trade's digital home.

Overview

The IKZ brand addresses the SHK industry's complete professional spectrum: the executing craft businesses, the specialist planners, the trainees, and the industry. The IKZ-HAUSTECHNIK, appearing fortnightly, is the comprehensive information source for the daily practice of the executing craft and the specialist planners: the technical developments, the product innovations, and the business guidance. The sister titles specialize: IKZ-FACHPLANER for the planners, consultants, and decision-makers of building technology; IKZ-PRAXIS for the trainees and journeymen; IKZ-ENERGY for the energy topics.

The ikz.de portal unites the brand digitally: the current news, the e-paper editions, the newsletters, and the social-media channels keep the SHK professionals informed between the fortnightly print issues. The fortnightly rhythm of the flagship gives the SHK professionals the continuous update that their fast-moving trade requires: the trade where the heat-pump boom, the building-energy law, and the skilled-worker shortage dominate the agenda needs the frequent information, and the installers plan their work around what the IKZ delivers.

The Building-Energy Transition

IKZ serves the trade at the epicenter of Germany's building-energy transition: the SHK installers are the ones who replace the oil and gas boilers with heat pumps, who renovate the bathrooms for the aging society, and who install the ventilation systems for the healthy buildings. The Building Energy Act (GEG), with its requirements for renewable heating, has made the heating replacement the trade's dominant business: the heat-pump installations surged, the manufacturers expanded, and the installers became the transition's bottleneck.

The journal's coverage of this transition is its most critical function: the installers need the technical knowledge for the heat-pump dimensioning, the hydraulic balancing, and the system integration; the business knowledge for the subsidy consulting that determines the customers' decisions; and the regulatory knowledge for the GEG compliance. IKZ's top-topic focus on heat pumps, its training content, and its product comparisons serve exactly these needs: the journal is the trade's transition companion, translating the energy policy into the craft practice.

History

The IKZ history begins in 1948 with the licensed "Nordwestdeutsche Installateur- und Klempnerzeitung." In the same year, the IKZ became the official organ of all state guild associations of the British occupation zone plus Hesse and Rhineland-Palatinate. In 1951, the Zentralverband des Installateur-, Klempner-, Kupferschmiede- und Zentralheizungsbauerhandwerks in Bonn declared the IKZ, today's IKZ-HAUSTECHNIK, its association organ.

The post-war rebuilding under Alice Strobel expanded the publishing house: the trainee journal "ikz Lehrling und Geselle" (today IKZ-PRAXIS), the FLÜSSIGGAS journal, the KÜCHENPLANER, and the K&L Magazin joined the portfolio. After Alice Strobel's death in 1987, Ekkehard Strobel led the house, with Christopher Strobel as managing partner from 2004 to 2020. Since January 2021, Michael Voss has been the publisher and managing director of the Strobel Media Group, with Markus Sironi as editor-in-chief.

Coverage and Content

The sanitation coverage addresses the bathroom as the craft's showcase: barrier-free bathrooms, kitchen fittings, sanitary equipment for semi-public and public areas, drinking-water hygiene, and pre-wall installations. The heating coverage follows the energy transition's core technology: the heat pumps as the top topic, the surface heating and cooling systems, the heating networks, and the pellet, wood-chip, and log boilers. The climate and ventilation coverage addresses the decentralized and central air conditioning, the air-distribution components, and the mono- and multi-split systems.

The business content serves the craft enterprises: the management of the installation businesses, from the calculation to the personnel; the marketing that wins the customers in the competitive renovation market; and the succession that secures the trade's future as the master generation retires. The association news covers the ZVSHK and the state associations' work: the collective agreements that set the wages, the training initiatives that recruit the next generation, and the political advocacy that represents the SHK craft in Berlin and Brussels. The product news presents the manufacturers' innovations, from the heat-pump generations with their refrigerants and efficiencies to the smart-home integrations that connect the heating to the digital building.

The SHK Trade

The SHK trade that IKZ serves is at the center of Germany's building-energy transition: the sanitation, heating, and air-conditioning installers implement the heat pumps, the bathroom renovations, and the ventilation systems on which the climate targets depend. The trade's 50,000+ businesses face the skilled-worker shortage, the regulatory complexity of the Building Energy Act, and the technology shift from fossil to electric heating.

IKZ's role as the ZVSHK's official journal gives it the institutional authority: the association's positions, the training standards, and the technical guidelines reach the trade through the IKZ. The fortnightly rhythm matches the trade's information need: the installers who plan the heating systems need the current product knowledge, the regulatory updates, and the business guidance continuously.

Organization and Ownership

The IKZ journals are published by the STROBEL VERLAG GmbH & Co. KG, Goethestraße 44, 59755 Arnsberg, part of the Strobel Media Group. The publisher is Michael Voss, the editor-in-chief Markus Sironi, a master gas and water installer and central-heating and ventilation master. The media group is a member of the Deutsche Fachpresse and the IVW.

The business model is the trade-publishing model: the subscriptions including the COMPLETE membership via ikz-select.de, which bundles the print and digital access; the advertising from the SHK industry's manufacturers, from the boiler makers to the bathroom brands to the tool suppliers; and the digital services. The delivery agreements with the SHK state associations, from Bavaria to Brandenburg to Mecklenburg-Vorpommern to Rhineland-Palatinate to the Berlin guild, ensure the distribution into the organized craft: the journals reach the member businesses through the association channels, making the IKZ the trade's collective medium.

Digital Presence

The ikz.de portal is the brand's digital home: the current SHK news, the e-paper editions of the journals, the email newsletters, and the social-media channels on Facebook, Twitter, and Xing. The ikz-select.de platform manages the subscriptions and the COMPLETE membership. The Web-TV and the multichannel information extend the print journals into the video and the interactive.

For the SHK trade, the IKZ digital presence is the daily companion: the installers check the news, read the e-paper, and follow the topics from heat pumps to drinking-water hygiene. The newsletters deliver the curated update into the mailboxes, the Web-TV visualizes the technologies, and the social channels connect the trade's community. Seven decades after the licensed new beginning, the IKZ brand remains the SHK trade's medium: the fortnightly journal, the specialized sisters, and the digital portal, together informing the craft that heats Germany's buildings, renews its bathrooms, and implements the energy transition one installation at a time, every single day.