JCB eyes bigger share of PH construction market

European brand, JCB heavy equipment, which has been previously low key in the Philippine construction market, now wants to make its presence felt and is pushing its brand aggressively in the country through its exclusive partnership with Filipino distributor, ICON Equipment.

The partnership was presented in a press conference yesterday in Makati where ICON Equipment chairman Fernando Imperial said the partnership would try to at least grab 5 percent of the P10 billion equipment market (not including heavy trucks) in the construction sector.

Imperial said the downswing in China’s economy in recent days would not have a big dent in the Philippine construction sector and that there are yet no signs of a property bust to worry about for now.

He said though JCB had been in the country for 17 years, it was overtaken by global brands from Japan, Korea, America and Europe which is why with the partnership with ICON now, JCB is hoping to recover some lost grounds and grab some share of the market by positioning itself in the mid-level priced equipment.

Imperial said JCB’s backhoe-loader, for one, would certainly make a big contribution to the Philippine government, particularly local government units, which are faced with devastations during typhoons and landslides. The units can be first responders to clear the obstacles along the roads from such calamities.

In fact, he said, three units of backhoe-loaders of JCB were sent Tacloban after Yolanda in 2013 for free to help the LGU in relief and recovery operations. “They returned the units to us after more than a year,” he added.

His marketing director, Christopher Imperial, came late for the press conference because he was in the bidding of the Department of Public Works and Highways for several units of backhoe-loaders to be deployed to the regional offices for both clearing and road maintenance operations. The younger Imperial said the government is slowly appreciating the value of the JCB backhoe-loaders and is now showing keen interest on these units.

The partnership expects the demand for heavy equipment to grow substantially, with construction still escalating in several parts of the country, but so is the supplier of heavy equipment and logistics suppliers.

JCB—a company founded in 1945 by Joseph Cyril Bamford with the backhoe loader as its first invention in 1953 and then hydraulic excavators (19640 and telescopic handler in 1977—is the third global leader in heavy equipment. But in the Philippines it had been overtaken by European, Japanese, Korean and Chinese brands, which is why it going to be aggressively pushing its brand in the market this time.

ICON Equipment—which stands for Imperial Concrete an extended family enterprise that began as a supplier of concrete to the construction industry through the Concrete Masters Inc. in 1997- began marketing different brands of heavy equipment in 2008 but only entered into exclusive dealership of JCB only in 2014.

JCB boasts of advantages like fuel efficiency, low maintenance, competitive prices, premium components and after sales customer service, extended warrant and low total cost of ownership.