Q.When it comes to factory tools market, India is flooded with several brands. What makes Hoffmann unique in the segment?
A. Hoffmann is the only company which offers a ‘unique proposition’ to its customers which means anything you want on shop floor, we will get it for you. 

Hoffmann has its premium brand called ‘Garant’, industry brand called ‘Holex’ and then we have the distributor’s brand. 

If any of our client wants some other brand, we will procure it for them. Hoffmann has more than 80,000 products and we are proud to make about 10,000 to 15,000 products on an annual basis.

Q. What is your share in tools section in the Indian market?
A. Our current share is very small but we are growing very fast in India. 

Although, we are almost a 100-year-old company, we are the latest entrant here. As per our estimate, the size of the tool market in India is roughly about 3 billion Euros.

Q. What is your take on ‘Quality’ when it comes to factory tools?
A. All I want to say is that we all spend millions on our business and hence, there is no point buying cheap tools. Buying cheap tools is like going ‘penny wise and pound foolish.’ 

If customers have to become competitive, they need to bank on quality products which helps them increase their productivity and efficiency. Quality products help save your time and effort.

Q. How do you find the Indian market in terms of quality and price and how is Hoffmann trying to penetrate the market ?
A. Indian customers are moving to quality from the cost. We feel Indian customers are demanding more value now and hence, we have taken the consultative sales approach. 

Our technical team will reach to the customers before our sales team.  Our technical team makes thousands of visits to the customers. India is one market where customers are very sharp and they know a lot about quality. That is the reason I frequently say that if you want to prove yourself, you have to prove it in India.

Q. How do you differentiate yourself when it comes to quality of the product?
A. We are proud to say that Hoffmann is a TUV certified company which means Hoffmann products come with a 10-year guarantee. 

We focus on delivering value to our customers. We have a strong research and development team in Munich, which keeps delivering quality products, which further helps our customers become more efficient.

Q. Can you just highlight any recent innovative product of Hoffmann?
A. We recently sold one of our ‘Tool Vending Machine’ in Jaipur. What the machine does is it makes a person accountable for the tools he is using on the factory floor. 

This helped our customer save as the employees on the floor became accountable, they became cautious of using the tools like hand gloves for instance.

Q. What is the rough share of sales in terms of various equipments of Hoffmann?
A. For us, as cutting tools are consumables, it accounts for 40 per cent share, workshop equipment would be 15 per cent, measuring tools will be about 15 per cent and 30 per cent would be hand tools.

Q. As Hoffmann has about 80,000 products does managing logistics becomes a challenge?
A. We are one of the best companies when it comes it managing the logistics. Our accuracy is more than 99 per cent. We have a smart logistics system and we are also soon coming with a logistic city in Germany. Currently, 80 per cent of our manufacturing is from Europe which comes to our plant in Chakan.

Q. What will be your branding strategy and what will be your short term goals?
A. We are into niche segment and so we participate in roadshows and workshops at different places. We are also targeting to reach to a sales figure of 30 million Euros. We are also looking for tying up with local manufacturers.

Q. What gets you to Pune?
A. We all know that Pune is home to lot of German companies and there was a need to cater to our clients.