The FINANCIAL — The number one brand of heating, ventilation and air conditioning in Georgia ‘Terma’ is going through a sectoral transition from the HVAC to MEP sector, which will be completed in 2018.
MEP stands for mechanical, electrical and plumbing. It refers to these aspects of building design and construction. In commercial buildings, these aspects are designed by an engineering firm specializing in MEP.
HVAC stands for heating, ventilation and air conditioning. It is used to provide heating and cooling services.
“This is the most important strategic change that we started in 2017 and are completing this year,” said Giorgi Machitize, shareholder of Terma.
Terma is one of the most successful companies on the Georgian market, which has been named the number one brand in Georgia in the field of heating, ventilation and air conditioning. Customers as well as the experts named Terma the number one company and it is thanks to them that the company got its first Golden Brand award this year.
“Terma has been operating on the Georgian market for 20 years. It was one of the first brands in Georgia to be associated with the complex projects of the HVAC sector. We are proud to receive a Golden Brand, and this award was timely because we have been very active in different directions since 2017. In terms of branding we are creating a seasonal standard, which is kind of an innovation for Georgian marketing; we are working on a commercial transformation and are going to renew our showroom. We served many international projects last year and raised awareness of Terma on foreign markets,” he added.
Q. Tell us about your company – how has Terma been developing on the Georgian market year after year?
A. Terma started operations on the Georgian market in 1997 as a limited liability company, while in 2007 it was transformed into a joint stock company. During this period Terma served hundreds of the largest projects and thousands of individual customers.
As of today Terma employs about 50 people, including 20 high ranking engineers and technicians.
The number of our corporate clients exceeds over 50 and we expect to double this number by 2019.
Q. Tell us about the products Terma offers its customers – where do you import these products from and how good quality and affordable are they for customers?
A. Terma is the distributor and official representative of a Chinese major appliance manufacturer and the world’s largest residential air-conditioner manufacturer company Gree to Georgia. This brand is known globally as technologically the most advanced company in the air conditioning field.
Our partners also include Mitsubishi Electric, which is a Japanese multinational electronics and electrical equipment manufacturing company; and Systemair – a Swedish company, leading manufacturer of heating, ventilation and air conditioning products with operations in more than 49 countries globally.
We also cooperate with less well-known but equally high quality brands.
Q. How has the number of Terma’s customers increased in 2017 compared to 2016?
A. There wasn’t significant growth in the individual segment, about 3-5 percent, which was a result of increased competition and manipulations with prices.
However, in the corporate segment we had 20 percent growth in the number of customers.
Our corporate clients are mobile telecommunications operators Geocell and Magti; Subway; the supermarket 2 Nabiji; internet service provider company Silknet; the largest auto company in Georgia Tegeta Motors, and others.
Q. Which new products and services did Terma offer customers last year?
A. We are trying to gradually integrate solar systems into our portfolio, however we see that the Georgian market is not active in this direction. So far consumers do not have enough awareness of these technologies, but we hope that interest will gradually increase.
Q. How competitive is the Georgian market and what is Terma’s competitive advantage?
A. There has been a boom of commercial construction in Georgia and especially in the capital, Tbilisi. A number of residential complexes are under construction as well as office-commercial buildings, business centres and hotels. All these units need proper service.
Since the construction industry has exponentially grown, our sector is growing as well. According to the principles of economy, the level of competition is also growing.
Overall this is a very useful trend because it drives our company to do more and more and be leaders of the market. It is bad that some organizations use the method of dumping (a kind of predatory pricing) and thus degrade the average quality, however two decades of doing business have taught us that success primarily comes from innovation and proper regulation of price-quality-technology combination.
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