Heavy equipment trader eyes market leadership in 5 years

MANILA, Philippines - Filipino-owned heavy equipment trading company ICON Equipment Solutions Philippines Inc. intends to ride on the country’s construction boom as it seeks to increase revenues five-fold this year as well as snatch market leadership in its field over the next five years.

In a press briefing, ICON chairman Fernando Imperial said the company expects revenues to soar to P600 million by yearend from P120 million last year.

He said growth would be fueled by a recent partnership forged with multinational heavy equipment firm J.C. Bamford Excavators Ltd. (JCB) in which ICON has been named exclusive distributor in the country of the latter’s products.

JCB is a UK -based construction equipment company with 22 factories in US, UK, Brazil, China, India and Germany.

“The construction industry in the country is growing and we expect this to continue. Before, people could only afford second-hand equipment but today, they are starting to buy brand-new equipment,” Imperial said.

Imperial said the country’s construction equipment industry is currently valued at P20 billion, half of which consists of excavators.

Imperial said ICON is targeting to grab at least 10 percent of that market this year and increase it to 25 percent within the next five years.

He said JCB products would be positioned competitively below prices of popular American and Japanese models.

Aside from JCB, ICON is the exclusive distributor of Industrial Vehicles Corp., an Italian truck, bus, and light commercial vehicle manufacturer, and Fiori Group, an Italian concrete equipment manufacturer.

ICON was established in 2013 to handle all the heavy equipment trading business of the Imperial family’s Concrete Master Inc.