July-August 2016 Oceania Edition

86 Business View Australia - July - August 2016 rently, work is in progress on a spe- cial shim from 3M to be supplied with the shim that is sourced from Ameri- ca. Efforts are also on to broaden the range of rotors that are supplied as currently only European rotors are on offer. Distribution strategy Victor describes Bremtec’s distri- bution strategy, “We have loyal cus- tomers Australia- wide and in New Zealand and in America that love our brand, and as we work on a new prod- uct or an upgrade, we let our custom- ers know, they come on board. “We tend to stick to the customers we have, we are not a retail business. We supply to the wholesale market and to stockists who stock our prod- ucts on their shelves. They distribute through their network to their custom- ers. A lot of our sales is through word of mouth as well. It is a small industry and people know each other.” The company values the relation- ships that it has built with its cus- tomers. It works closely with them and in many cases, speaks to them every day. This helps to get feedback on the products sold and on service issues. As a result of having estab- lished strong ties with its resellers, Bremtec’s manufacturing facility has an annual turnover of 23 million brake pads and four million brake discs. New product lines are developed based on customer needs. Recent- ly a New Zealand distributor request- ed specific numbers that are just for the New Zealand market. The compa- ny immediately began the process for their manufacture. There is a system in place where distributors are offered a catalogue lookup which furnishes vehicle de- tails, allowing for the supply of cor- rect part numbers. This is a unique approach in the industry and normal- ly manufacturers do not offer this fa- cility. In fact, there is a special team that helps customers to look up the correct part. If a customer needs to supply a part for an Audi A6 and there are five list- ings, the company’s team uses its ex- pertise and confirms the correct part number. This backup service is very popular with customers and greatly appreciated by them as it allows them to quickly satisfy the requirements of the end-customer. Motorsport Bremtec sponsors Renee Gracie, Australia’s first woman to race in the Porsche Carrera Cup. The company has gained great mileage from this sponsorship and the exposure for its products has been tremendous. In the motorsport world, Renee is viewed as the equivalent of Danica Patrick, the former Indycar and now NASCAR rac- er.