Honeywell regains position as number one supplier of synthetic wax additives in Australia

Challenge

Australia’s manufacturing sector has changed dramatically over recent years with many companies moving their manufacturing offshore. A prime example is the loss of the automotive industry, with the last manufacturer (General Motors Holden) closing their operation in 2017.

Honeywell was once in a leading position in Australia for synthetic wax blends. The change in the manufacturing landscape and the lack of market presence, however resulted in the unsatisfactory performance of Honeywell in the past six years and cast many uncertainties as to its future.

Approach

The first step was to understand the market and map out the customers in each of the segments.

As a starting point, we leveraged our market knowledge of the Plastics, Rubber and Paint & Coatings industries identifying a range of users and new potential customers. The objective was to understand their needs and what, if any, reapproval process was required.

DKSH collaborated closely with Honeywell’s commercial and technical teams to provide recommendations and commercial offers that helped Honeywell regain its business and identify some new opportunities that Honeywell was not aware of.

We further supported Honeywell with our Asia-wide distribution network and logistics supply chain to ensure a continued and uninterrupted supply of products to customers.

Result

Within twelve months, Honeywell’s sales of their synthetic wax products had surpassed their expectations and they achieved the highest level of sales volume in the last six years.