The Comtest Group, sole distributors of Fluke test and measurement equipment in southern Africa, recently held a series of gatherings for its dealers in Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town. Steve Hood, Fluke’s general manager for the Middle East and Africa, delivered the keynote address to around 50 guests at Comtest’s Linbro Park headquarters.
“Fluke’s mission is to be the leading worldwide supplier of portable test tools and related equipment for the service, installation and maintenance of electrical and electronic equipment,” said Hood, “and our goal is to delight and empower our customers with robust, intuitive tools that help them quickly solve their toughest problems.”
To this end, Fluke has strengthened its footprint worldwide with offices in more than 25 countries staffed by over 3000 employees.
“Sales and service subsidiaries are in place in 100 countries and there are Fluke manufacturing facilities in the United States, Europe and China. A recent development in the emerging market arena was Fluke’s acquisition of Channel in India and South Korea,” adds Hood.
An indication of the brand’s success is the fact that Fluke has won numerous product awards in the last two years: 17 for multimeters, 21 for thermal imagers and 16 for clamp meters.
According to Hood, “Fluke’s growth focus is in the emerging markets. Customers’ cost structures are under pressure and this drives Fluke to analyse its productivity. Thankfully, the Fluke brand enjoys one of the highest unaided awareness and preference in its category. This, coupled with high product vitality and the perception that the brand is synonymous with innovation, is brand-marketing gold and makes our job a good deal easier than some others out there.”
Fluke continues to enjoy a mutually beneficial relationship with the Comtest Group, which has shown an overall growth of 9% against its 2010 results, with the strongest growth mainly in the hi-touch products, e.g. thermography, process calibration, scopemeter, power quality and the electrical products.
In conclusion, Hood said, “Fluke believes that the South African operation has a 50% growth potential over the next few years, and we are very excited at that prospect.”
For more information contact Comtest, +27 (0)11 608 8520, info@comtest.co.za, www.comtest.co.za
