Major Tech is a well-known and respected South African brand in the electrical industry, supplying hand-held test instruments for every application to measure, record or fault finding. Established in 1992, with a vision and mission of being the brand of choice, by consistently pushing the benchmark with innovative, high quality product developments, and unparalleled service, the company is now embarking on an exciting new venture – branching out to Australia.
“We have been exporting to a distributor in Australia for over twenty years,” explains Major Tech Chief Executive Officer, Pat Shaw, “Yet we always wanted to grow our presence there. As fate would have it, when COVID-19 hit, my son, Gary, and his Australian girlfriend were stuck with us in South Africa for nine months.” The expansion to Australia came up in conversation, and the perfect opportunity arose.
Located in the suburb of Brendale in Brisbane, Major Tech’s 500m2 warehouse started receiving stock in June and the company began trading on October 1st. “We began without a customer base,” says Shaw. “People did know a little about us – we previously exported around 10 products, mainly entry level – but we have launched with a 120-page catalogue and have already signed up some major distributor groups.”
Currently the company is focussed on selling its test and measurement instruments as well as hand tools, but Shaw admits that there is a possibility to send over more of their ranges in the future.
“Australia and South Africa are very similar markets,” he says, “And the wholesalers are very friendly with no hidden agendas. One difference is that the Australian market is not as a price sensitive as we are locally, and it often comes down to supply, hence why we have ensured a large amount of stock holding of all products in the new Australian office. It is a service driven market – if you look after them, they will look after you.” Major Tech are currently in the process of employing salespeople, and are aiming to have a full sales force up and running in January with a sales person in each main territory.
Change of colour
When Major Tech decided to open up in Australia, another company already had a patent for the yellow and grey colours to be used on instruments over there. “This provided an opportunity to refresh our brand identity,” explains Marketing Manager, Leigh Shaw. “We have changed our colours to blue and light grey, and this will be seen in South Africa when our 2022 catalogue is released.”
At the same time, the company decided to revamp its packaging across the entire range, along with rewriting all manuals. The result is easy-to-read packaging which not only highlights the product benefits, but also provides customers with the specs and features at a glance. Furthermore, all the company’s professional multimeters have been upgraded to True RMS, and most now feature Bluetooth, the ever-popular models MT1885 and MT1887 have been designed to measure up to 1500 V DC to meet the solar industry’s requirements.
Despite the challenges facing the country – and the world – the past two years have been exciting ones for Major Tech, and with the company celebrating its 30th anniversary in 2022, there are no signs of slowing down. “The aim is to make Major Tech a household name in Australia by using the same formula we have been using locally for almost three decades; a high quality product at a reasonable price,” Shaw concludes.
Enquiries: www.major-tech.com
