Bengaluru, May 2, 2016 – Hitachi Koki (Hitachi Group), a power tools pioneer, intends to amplify its global acquisition of German competitor Metabo in the Indian market by introducing new products with cutting-edge technology. The company will retain the brand identity of Metabo and maintain a separate business vertical in India.

Speaking about the acquisition on the eve of 20th anniversary of Hitachi Koki India, Mr Osami Maehara, President and Board of Director of Hitachi Koki Co Limited, Japan, said, “We have successfully completed the acquisition of Metabo, a long-established power tool manufacturer in Germany, which has strong brand awareness, mainly in the European market. We expect the synergy by utilising mutual supply of products, and sales and service network of each other. We believe that we will be able to improve our corporate value by creating synergy effect in an early stage.”

Hitachi Koki acquired Metabo for Rs 1,900 crore in March 2016. The plan is to achieve additional 5 per cent of Indian revenue through the acquisition with a new range of products. Metabo will continue to have R&D centre in Germany and will be supporting India with latest technological products.

“We believe in flowing back profits earned in India to our Indian subsidiary itself, which we have been following since the inception of this Indian entity. All these investments have been used to increase our logistics and office facilities and enhance the working capital. We started exporting our products to Sri Lanka and Nepal since 2007. This year we are entering Bangladesh as well,” Mr Maehara added.

During the last financial year, the company had 7 branches and 2 sales offices in India and in the beginning of the current financial year, 2 more sales offices were added. “We have plans to open more sales offices in future, so as to focus more on untapped opportunities and potential in tier II and tier III cities. Similarly, we have around 400 dealers at present across the country and we have plans to increase it to 500 dealers during the next two years,” said Mr Akira Hirano, Managing Director, Hitachi Koki India Pvt Ltd.

Presently, the company has 200 employees, both direct and indirect across the country covering all the functions and the will be increased by 30% in future.

Speaking about Indian operations, Mr Dattatraya Joshi, Executive Director & Secretary of Hitachi Koki India Pvt Ltd, said that in the beginning it was challenging to establish the brand among the Indian consumers and setting up the dealer network. “From early 2000’s we had consolidated our position and started growing much faster than the industry growth. Today we are one of the leading brands in the country and our business has been growing at 16% CAGR since its inception,” he added.