Far East Machinery Opens Taichung Office to Tap Bigger Market Share in Central Taiwan

Machine-tool maker Far East Machinery Co. Ltd. (FEMCO), headquartered in the southern Taiwan city of Chia Yi, has recently opened an office in Taichung to boost its market share in central Taiwan.

According to chairman, K.H. Chuang, central Taiwan is home to most of the island's processing factories of machine tools and related components, providing sizable business for machine tool makers albeit with stiff competition.

The Taichung office will market the company's high-end machines, including bed-type milling & boring machines, five-axis machining centers, and vertical-type lathes, in addition to collecting market intelligence and providing customer services.

The company contracted agents 25 years ago to promote its machines in central Taiwan after years of in-house marketing, but processing factories have been unable to acquire first-hand information on potential customers' products, dampening the company's sales capacity in the region and knowledge about the central Taiwan market.

Chuang feels that the company can effectively expand sales in markets other than central Taiwan through sales outlets. So far, the 1949-founded company has set up marketing offices in the United States, India, and Malaysia, also planning to open offices in Thailand and China in March 2014 to boost sales revenue and earnings in the years to come.

Also in March 2014, the company will roll out an automated line for mixed production of wheels to make the most of its clout in wheel-making machine tools, which is expected to make a splash in the market with high production efficiency, compactness, and smartphone-connected control system.

Chuang points out the company is moving towards restructuring its business units into independent subsidiaries with the aim of boosting consolidated revenue to NT$10 billion (US$333 million) in three to five years, also planning to spin off its pipe & tube and engineering & consultancy business units into subsidiaries after spinning off its machine-tool and golf-club manufacturing units.