What Awaits The Power Tool Market?

Today, the analytical session "Overview of the power tool market. Prospects for import substitution" was held as part of the business program of the ToolMash 2024 exhibition

On the first day of the International Exhibition ToolMash 2024, an analytical session "Power Tool Market Review. Import Substitution Prospects" was held . The event was moderated by Evgeny Liskin , Managing Partner of the Unified Platform of Tools and Equipment company. According to the speaker, specialized retail stores have shown a minimum increase of 1.3% over the past 12 months. Speaking about individual brands, Evgeny Liskin noted the following data in retail sales over the past 12 months:

// Former leaders - Western companies that suspended their operations or reduced their marketing activity are significantly reducing their sales volumes (Stihl -51.7%, Bosch -47%, DeWalt -43%)
// Against the backdrop of declining sales of foreign players, there has been an increase in sales of brands with some positioning close to the departed brands (for example, Kress +29.5%, Russian company Interskol +5%, Huter +22.6%, garden equipment Greenworks +80%).

The speaker then provided statistics on the best-selling items for the period January-April 2022 compared to the same period in 2024. Over these two years, the situation has changed dramatically: not a single item of the company that was previously in the lead remained in the TOP sales. Evgeny Liskin also noted another problem - the growth of counterfeit products, especially on marketplaces, due to a shortage in the market in terms of supply and an almost 2-fold increase in prices.

Continuing the line of specialized retail, the next speaker was Vladimir Korotkov, Executive Director of the Union of Independent Tool Retail . According to the expert, 2024, for the second year in a row, is being held under the banner of replacing some brands with others. There were serious concerns that the departure of iconic Group A brands from the Russian market would lead to a decrease in sales in retail companies, but this did not happen. According to the results of the 3rd quarter, almost all companies saw sales growth from 7 to 30%, with the main growth in percentage terms coming from e-commerce. Vladimir Korotkov also noted the most affected segment in terms of product availability - professional tools. Also, according to the speaker, now a full-fledged service approach, which is important to the consumer, is not offered by companies specializing in tools.

The head of the sales department of the company "Dzhileks" Sergey Karbovets spoke about the issue of replacing brands and trademarks . The expert spoke about the production capacity of the plant, noting that the enterprise has three automated lines for the production of hydraulic accumulators and expansion tanks, as well as a fully automated line for the automatic assembly of fittings. The speaker also presented the developments of the design department and their functionality.

Oleg Sokolov , category director of VseInstrumenti.ru, noted that "the market continues to operate and there are categories with sudden growth." According to the results of the first half of 2024, 867 new brands, 489 new suppliers and more than 1.5 million products available for sale appeared on the company's website. Among the trends, the speaker notes the transformation of the usual market schemes: previously, multi-stage distribution prevailed, but now the manufacturer can interact directly with the end consumer. Also, according to Oleg Sokolov, the market is now shifting towards the middle and economy segments: according to the results of the cross-section of consumer preferences by price segments, the dynamics in the "High" segment was -6.9% and + 7.8% in the "Economy" segment.

Georgy Kartvelishvili , partner of the consulting agency Paper Planes, spoke on the topic of "Expert Sales in B2B". The speaker defined the topic of the speech as "product life cycle management". The expert spoke in detail about each stage of the product life cycle and what characteristics they have. Georgy Kartvelishvili also noted that in order to effectively launch a product on the market, it is recommended to choose one specific industry and one type of client and offer this product to them. According to the speaker, one of the indicators of a good and balanced product range is the availability of products at each stage of the life path. In conclusion, the expert spoke about the TCO (Total Cost of Ownership) indicator.