The FINANCIAL — (Tbilisi, Georgia) 100 new heavy duty trucks and construction equipment were sold by Tegeta Truck & Bus by 24 February this year whilst plans for the whole year comprise 154 units. As said by the company’s General Manager David Cheishvili, this boom was largely due to the launch of large construction projects both on rail, road and other sectors alike.
The number of trucks and equipment realized this year (100 units) is even bigger compared to last year’s overall sales figure when the company sold 85 units of heavy duty trucks and construction equipment.
Tegeta Truck & Bus imports only brand trucks and equipment produced in Germany, United Kingdom, Japan as well as some other countries.
80% of the heavy trucks in Georgia are by Tegeta Truck & Bus whilst in construction equipment, their market share amounts to up to 55%. As David Cheishvili, General Director of the company claims, this is not due to monopolization of the market but because of the reason that they offer the best purchasing conditions as well as high quality vehicles of all types.
Interview with David Cheishvili, General Manager at Tegeta Truck & Bus
Q. When was Tegeta Truck & Bus established? Please give us a brief history of the company.
A. Tegeta Truck & Bus Ltd was established in 2006 as an official partner of MAN Truck & Bus AG (formerly MAN Nutzfahrzeuge AG).
MAN Truck & Bus AG is the largest subsidiary of the MAN SE corporation and one of the leading international providers of commercial vehicles. MAN SE (Maschinenfabrik Augsburg-NĂĽrnberg), formerly MAN AG, is a mechanical engineering company and parent company of the MAN Group. MAN SE is based in Munich and its primary output is for the automotive industry, particularly heavy trucks. Further activities include the production of diesel engines for various applications, like ship propulsion, and also turbomachinery. Headquartered in Munich, Germany, MAN Truck & Bus produces trucks in the range from 7.49 to 44 t gvw, heavy goods vehicles up to 250 t road train gvw, bus-chassis, coaches, interurban coaches and city buses. MAN Truck & Bus also produces diesel- and natural-gas engines.
Gradually our list of partners is expanding and we’re now the representatives of JCB. JCB is a global construction, demolition and agricultural equipment company. It is the world's third-largest construction equipment manufacturer. It produces over 300 types of machines, including diggers ("Backhoes"), excavators, tractors and diesel engines. It has 18 factories across Asia, Europe, North America and South America and its products are sold in over 150 countries
Tegeta Truck & Bus Ltd represents Schmitz Cargobull, Cifa, Faun, Ziegler, Katmerciler, Terex, Isuzu and several other companies as well.
Q. What are the products that you offer your clients? And what is your target customer base?
A. We provide any size/type of motor vehicles such as tipper trucks, different tipe of semi-trailers, concrete mixers, municipal vehicles, different type of earthmoving equipment and many others.
Our customers are mainly road and construction companies, carrier companies, municipal enterprises, etc. Although the Georgian market is limited, in recent months demand has been increasing to a large extent.
Tegeta Truck & Bus offers to customers products with different type and modification from MAN and JCB. these 2 brands are “PREMIUM” in Europe and long-term partnership with these companies clearly demonstrates what reliable partners we are. We always try to expand our supplier’s base so as to offer wide variety of product for our customers. In terms of the latter the year 2010 has been dedicated to research which means finding out the needs local companies have, also with which supplier to focus more. Henceforth, this year we’ll be offering typically new brands to our customers in order to satisfy their growing demands.
Trucks or any other special vehicles which are imported in Georgia are mainly second-hand which is associated with complicated servicing and difficulty in supplying them with relevant spare parts. Therefore at Tegeta Trucks & Bus we’ve only brand new vehicles, including a guarantee and servicing thereafter.
Q. How many customers does Tegeta Truck & Bus service centre have on a daily basis?
A. We serve 50-70 customers each day. As a leading heavy vehicle importer in Georgia we are open to receiving information every day about any problems or issues such as vehicle defects – whereby we communicate with our suppliers to resolve the issue. We run systematic quality controls on our products, and in case of any trouble, we then analyze and fix it instantly.
Concurrently we’re holding negotiations with Man Truck & Bus AG Mobile 24 system which is a service centre with specially trained staff on the phone which offer customers a direct connection to MAN know-how. When a person dials the Mobile24 number, which is the same Europe-wide, then he will always be connected to a competent partner who speaks his language and who understands the problems. That means: efficiently which quickly gets you moving again.
Q. What about your staff? How many people are working in the Tegeta Truck and bus division?
A. At the moment we have 65 people at our company. We have two main service centres in Tbilisi where 55 service personnel are employed. Each direction has its professional staff. In the sales direction, specialists build the vehicles to customers’ needs which is optimal to construction, transport, or any type of task with the final purpose of ensuring fast and effective implementation of their plans.
In the service centres, specialists diagnose and fix problems with top-notch automated systems. Qualified staff is an unvalued asset for the company, thereby we are greatly investing in the knowledge of our personnel in order to trace rapidly developing technologies worldwide.
Q. How does the company grow from year to year?
A. Tegeta Trucks & Bus is developing very rapidly from year to year, albeit the 2008 war events did slow down the processes in the company. But since 2009, as the country started its large scale projects including that of road and rail infrastructure development, it had an enormous impact on our activities too.
Compared to 2009, in 2010 we’d overall 16% growth in terms of sales figures and profit. Thereby we’ve increased average monthly income of employers by 15% and employed 7 additional staff. As an example, in 2010 we realized 85 units of vehicles whilst already in 2011, by 24 February, we sold 100 units of vehicles which is a great achievement in just 2 months.
Q. What is the company mission? What values are you united with at Tegeta Truck & Bus?
A. Our company Core Mission is to grow by offering innovative, strong, high quality products/equipment to our clients.
Values for our clients: We are oriented on establishing long-term relationships with our customers. We are also helpful in providing relevant technology hence we’ve an individual approach to each of our customers.
For our employees: To attain high results, it’s only possible by having highly qualified and motivated co-workers. We try our best to create an environment where every employee will have the feeling of stability and possibility to realize themselves entirely.
For our country: We make every attempt to contribute to the development of our home country. Through transparency, sincerity and responsibility we want to be a role model.
Our Goal is to establish long term partnerships with our clients through received experience, flexible policies, and of course by partnering with world known companies – these all will guarantee high quality and complex service at any needed moment.
Q. What about the corporate social responsibility of Tegeta Truck and Bus? Do you have any future plans in this regard?
A. As we’re a very successful company, it allows us to be socially responsible too. Whereas earlier we were involved in green activities of the city and charity activities, now from 2011 we plan to implement different arrangements dedicated to the most vulnerable children in the country.
At this point we’re analyzing the situation in orphanages – their needs, and thereby are trying to give them the opportunity to develop their skills – with the final aim of going through internships with employment prospects at our company.
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