Emphasising the critical importance of successful partnering with its dealer network and reinforcing the company’s active innovation strategy, Nilfisk Australia’s recently held 2015 Dealer Conference was an ideal opportunity for the company’s management to show off a raft of initiatives.
“We have made great strides in a relatively short period of time,” noted Nilfisk Australia’s managing director Jim Athanas. “Over the past 18 months there’s been a cultural transformation, which has translated into a business environment of collaboration and teamwork.
“I am committed to ensuring we offer a world class working environment and that our team has a key goal in mind… ultimately delivering Nilfisk as the preferred choice with customers.” That ambition has already gained traction with the company recording double digit sales growth in the large scrubber/sweeper machine category.
The Sydney head office now boasts a high quality training centre that features various floor types on which to demonstrate machines as well as presentation rooms and appropriate educational technology.
“We truly value our ‘back office’ team and this year we held a dedicated internal sales, service and office conference,” Athanas pointed out. “Awards were presented to staff in these often un-recognised areas.”
The Dealers Conference, held at the company’s head office facility in Blacktown (Sydney) on 19 and 20 February, was hosted by Athanas and business unit manager, professional, Ritchie Bloomfield.
It was a well balanced mix of education, training and networking.
The some 40 distributor executives from around Australia were given excellent presentations on new release machines by visiting Nilfisk group product managers Malene Kappel (Copenhagen, Denmark) and Erich Schroeder (Minnesota, USA).
Dealer ‘success stories’ and an awards presentation complemented the busy program.
Schroeder reprised the recently released SC1500 stand-on auto scrubber/dryer with Ecoflex; introduced the SC500, said to be the most advanced 53cm walk behind auto scrubber/dryer on the market; presented the SC2000 Micro Ride-on Scrubber/Dryer, said to double the productivity of a walk-behind; and covered the large SC6500 Ecoflex ride-on battery-powered scrubber/dryer.
Kappel’s key model presentation focuses at the Nilfisk dealer event were the VP600 canister and VU500 upright.
The VP600 reflects today’s demand for lower energy consumption; quieter operation for day cleaning; and operator ease-of-use. It comes with HEPA as standard and has a 350 watt motor that can be power-boosted to 800 watts.
The VU500 upright with three-stage filtration (including HEPA) is said to deliver exceptional cleaning performance in an easy to use, easy to maintain upright vacuum that is designed to withstand stringent environmental requirements.
The National Dealer of the Year Award was won by Allens Industrial and was accepted by Trent Allen. The prize included a return trip to Denmark and $3,000 worth of Georg Jensen products.