Multi-brand strategy to overcome Brazil's crisis

To address Brazil's economic crisis, KION Latin America is following an unwavering strategy, which focuses on a multi-brand approach. Since April 2016, the Linde and STILL brands have been marketed together in the country. “Our revenue fell by almost 80 percent in just three years so we had to change something to survive,” admits Frank Bender, CEO for KION Latin America. Within 12 weeks, he and his team set up a new sales structure, which sees the Barueri and São Bernardo do Campo sites combined under the "GoDirect" name. There was so much interest in the KION stand at the engineering expo in São Paulo that you would think Brazil was no longer in the midst of an economic crisis. Trucks from Linde and STILL were on display side-by-side.

Paulo Cabbia is the proprietor of Moviminas in Uberlândia, which provides customer support to the beverage manufacturer Triângulo. He had just begun building a new office and workshop when he received word of the new strategy. “ To begin with, the changes actually meant additional costs,” he explains, adding, “Instead of a basic exterior, we built an elegant glass facade and the concrete floor we had planned was replaced by a bright blue epoxy floor so that we could showcase the premium Linde brand in an appropriate way.” Prior to these changes, Moviminas had sold and rented STILL trucks and was one of the country's largest dealers. Since April, Cabbia has visited all the Linde customers in his geographic area, which is larger than Germany. “We knew some of them already since, on average, eight out of 20 Linde customers buy STILL vehicles as well. Just like Refrigerantes do Triângulo, they all now benefit from our excellent service department.”

For the KION Group, the new dual-brand approach has seen an increase in market share. “It’s quite simple,” explains Bender smiling. “Everyone dreams of having a Linde truck. But now we can offer STILL trucks to customers who can not afford the Linde brand instead of losing them to our competitors.”