Phl real estate boom fuels growth for tool provider

CEBU, Philippines - The real estate boom in the Philippines provided a promising outlook for Germany-based construction tool provider AEG Power Tools, to consider the country as one of the fastest growing markets in Asia.

In an interview with AEG Power Tools Asia, Hermann Holst, he said the company is seeing double-digit growth in the Philippines in the next few years, as contractors and building engineers are now shifting into using innovative tools to give convenience, energy efficiency to their work.

Holst said AEG is going to leverage on this development, as one of the recognized providers of sophisticated construction tools in the world.

In the Philippines, the company is looking closely at Cebu and the rest of the Southern Philippine market as its main growth area in the country, through its partnership with ElektroWerk Inc. (WEK), the country’s distributor of its products.

“We can attest to how well Cebu has improved. We now see a lot of developments especially in office and residential buildings,” said WEK president James Tan in a press conference during the recently concluded AEG Power Tools Asian Distributors Conference held in Cebu.

The strong demand for cordless construction equipment is one of the competitive edges of AEG Power Tools, in order to strengthen its market foothold in the Philippines. Likewise, its wide choices of energy-efficient, or green technology tools are expected to bring the brand into the spotlight in the construction industry sector.

WEK is the Philippine distributor-partner of AEG Power Tools, a German brand whose products are manufactured by Techtronic Industries Company Ltd.(TTI)

The AEG Power Tools product portfolio covers metalworking, hammers and drilling, cordless and woodworking. Aside from construction.

AEG’s products are used in sectors like automotive, plumbing, home building and mining.

At present, AEG Power Tools’ biggest market in cordless is North America, while Asia is catching up.

In 2013, the company is looking at hitting US$3 million sales in the Philippines, much higher than the US$2 million sales recorded in 2010.

In the next two to three years, AEG, together with WEK aimed at hitting four to five times sales growth in the country, said Tan.

According to Tan this projection is attainable while the growth in the construction and real estate sectors in the Philippines is expected to stay long term.

In fact, Tan said the reason why AEG decided to hold its two-day conference in Cebu, the first time to held outside of Hong Kong, because the German construction brand sees big opportunity for growth in the country, and Cebu in particular.

The recently concluded conference, introduced more products like cordless tools with advanced Lithium ion technology, which will be marketed by the company next year.

AEG Power Tools Asian general manager Paul Lee said that the brand’s innovation in the green technology, could push the company’s triple-digit growth in Asia in the next few years.        

Lee said the introduction of wide array of cordless tools for instance was mainly driven by the company’s “green initiatives,” fueled by the government regulations.

With aim to be in the forefront of providing energy efficient tools, Lee said more products will be introduced by the company in the next few years with emphasizes on energy usage reduction, and lessening one’s carbon footprint.

Cordless tools can achieve energy savings as high as 40 percent compared to traditional tools.

While Filipino companies are now using cordless tools, further education and awareness are needed to improve the country’s 10 to 15 percent current cordless tool usage. (FREEMAN)