Earlier this year, in April, Faymonville, a leading manufacturer of semi-trailers for special haulage, announced its acquisition of 100 per cent stake in Industrie COMETTO S.p.A. of Italy, a global leader in self-propelled modular trailers. While the move comes as an important one from a global market perspective, it has interesting consequences as far as the Indian market is concerned as well.
We spoke to Mr. Jeremy Keller, Area Sales Manager – Asia, Faymonville, to find out what the Faymonville-Cometto combine means for the Indian market and what value the dual-brand approach could deliver to customers both in India and across the globe.
Excerpts:
At a time when we see quite a bit of consolidation globally in the field of semi-trailers and special haulage, how important is the acquisition of Industrie Cometto for the Faymonville Group? What impact does it have on your global presence and business?
By bundling Faymonville with Cometto under one solid brand, the Faymonville Group invests in new product segments and completes its product range. With this takeover, the Faymonville Group can now offer worldwide transport equipment to its customers from 15 to 15,000 tons … and above. The Cometto brand covers the self-propelled trailer market. Integrating Cometto into the Faymonville Group will be beneficial for both companies: Faymonville will combine its knowledge in production processes with Cometto’s existing know-how in the self-propelled modular segment. The Faymonville quality management will not only interact in production but also in R&D, worldwide service and spare parts delivery to provide the best products and the highest service to its customers. A higher production capacity, together with an improved quality, will be the result. This acquisition will significantly increase our market position.
While Faymonville has not had any business in the Indian market, Industrie Cometto has been a well-known brand in the Indian market for many years now. What value does the acquisition add to the combined entity’s business in India?
Cometto is very active and successful in markets like India and has a very strong following in the ultra-heavy transport sector throughout the world. Founded in 1954, with its manufacturing plant in Cuneo in Northern Italy, Cometto has been one of the leaders in the modular / SPMT technology for many years. It built its first self-propelled unit in 1981 and now offers a wide range of products and advanced electronic control systems. It has a very advanced product range with world-class electronic control systems that offer the best performance in the most difficult situations, which is vital for the most testing heavy transport operations. Within the Faymonville Group, we want to push the Cometto brand and its first class products on worldwide scale to the level which they deserve.
What other synergies can the companies strike with each other’s strengths following the take-over? Could you list out specific areas or aspects where your apparent weaknesses till date could be addressed better with the two companies coming together?
The integration into the Faymonville Group gives Cometto new strength, and the Faymonville Group completes its product range.
As an organisation, Cometto has probably failed to make some customers aware of just how good its systems are. The engineers and production staff do a very good job, but the product needs stronger marketing. Also, the company has been lacking investment. We intend to rectify this quickly. The staff have responded positively to this, and we intend making considerable investment in both the production facility and the company as a whole.
Faymonville combines its expertise in production processes with specialist knowledge of Cometto in the self-propelled modular vehicles segment. Cometto will accordingly become the competence centre for self-propelled vehicles.
Faymonville’s quality management will have its effect not only on the production process but also in R&D, global service and spareparts delivery, in order to offer our customers the best possible products with outstanding service.
Since the takeover, Cometto has integrated seamlessly into the famously dynamic Faymonville Group. The initial focus was on redesigning the service and after sales organisation. What this actually means is: the customer is king!
- A 24/7 service hotline (+39 0171 263330) from now on guarantees practical assistance around the clock
- Global spareparts delivery will be significantly improved from now on
- Communication will be more (pro)active and comprehensive
These are the first steps in the reorientation of Cometto. There are more to follow.
True to our new Cometto motto: Propelled to the MAX!
Moving forward, what could we expect from the formidable Faymonville-Industrie Cometto combine? While we would guess the current year might be spent in consolidation and merging the two companies together globally, what would your targets be for the next few years? Would you be able to share your specific targets for 2020?
The Faymonville Group has always been ambitious, and it’s the same now with this integration of Cometto. We want to reach the MAXimum!