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Robert Bosch Tool Corporation Dr. Michael Bolle joined the Robert Bosch GmbH board of management July 1. He was the head of the corporate sector for research and advance engineering. He will be assuming the newly created position of chief digital officer as well as taking over the chief technology officer position. Bosch is committed to driving forward the company’s digital transformation. Dr. Christian Fischer will become head of the Energy and Building Technology business sector in January 2019. He is currently a senior partner at management consulting firm Roland Berger. His responsibilities will include Building Technologies and the Robert Bosch Smart Home GmbH subsidiary as well as Thermotechnology and Bosch Global Service Solutions. Dr. Rolf Baulander will be retiring at the end of the year after 30 years with Bosch. He has been a member of the board of management since 2013, and a spokesperson for the Mobility Solutions business sector since 2015. Effective January 1, 2019, Dr. Stefan Hartung will assume Dr. Baulander’s position with Mobility Solutions. Stanley Black & Decker From the JPMorgan Homebuilding Conference: SB&D was represented at the conference by CFO Don Allan. It is key to them to make sure that all of their brands are in industries that can grow and also have the potential for SB&D to distinguish themselves through innovation. They are focused on becoming a smart, digitally oriented company with technologies that can drive value through the supply chain. They defined Lenox, Irwin and Craftsman as near-term growth catalysts for this year through 2020. They are rolling out several revenue synergies related to Lenox and Irwin that will result in between $100 million and $150 million in extra revenue. Craftsman is at least a $1 billion revenue opportunity over a 10-year period of time. They will be rolling out Craftsman with Amazon later this year. The Craftsman business will be a huge positive, but it may have a short-term negative impact on margins as well as sales of some of the brands that are coming out of Lowe’s. FlexVolt will also continue to be a growth catalyst for the next several years. The technology continues to roll out across their cordless power tools system. They plan to introduce between 5 and 7 new products each year. They have created breakthrough innovation teams for every major business. Between 200 and 250 Lowe’s stores will get the full Craftsman roll out this year; the remaining 1,500 North American stores will be converted during the first quarter of 2019. Of course there is some cannibalization with some products coming out of Lowe’s, but they hope to redeploy those brands to other areas over the next few years. They are planning on growing from $13 billion now to $22 billion by 2022. They will continue to evaluate bolt-on acquisitions in the tools segment to help them reach that goal, and also have an interest in lawn and garden, where Craftsman is strong. They may look at a joint venture, commercial relationships or smaller acquisitions. They are trying to better understand how they can provide more value to their customers by utilizing their advanced analytic techniques. They are now expecting commodity inflation to grow to about $180 million this year, up from initial estimates of $150 million. They have actions in place with many customers that will offset about $100,000 million of that and they are discussing taking further price actions. From the Electrical Products Group Conference: When Jim Loree took over as CEO in August 2016, he had outside analysts delve into the company history to look for common themes, areas of strength and weakness, etc. One recurrent theme was boldness, which he described as being able to innovate and reinvent themselves. They have implemented commercial excellence in their European business for tools over the past four years and have averaged 7% organic growth in a market that is only growing about 1% - 2%. Their growth pipeline has never been more robust than it is now and includes both organic and inorganic opportunities. They have redesigned more than 1,000 SKUs to support the massive Craftsman rollout throughout Lowe’s, Ace and Amazon. He described the impact on Lowe’s as “mind-blowing.” They believe Craftsman will grow to be substantially bigger than their initial estimate of $1 billion over ten years. An analyst asked if it would be closer to $3 billion and Loree said he thought the day was coming when he would be comfortable with that number, now that they have seen the very high degree of interest and customer receptiveness. Last year FlexVolt contributed $300 million in sales and they expect it to expand and grow as they add SKUs and the installed base grows. They did about $1 billion in ecommerce last year, about half with Amazon. The ecommerce segment is growing in the 20% to 30% range, and they are very committed to growing it both through Amazon and the home center OEMs with their own captive ecommerce platforms. They have built in about $180 million in inflation and will recoup $120 of that through price, a combination of working with their customers and their suppliers. They hosted Craftsman Day for analysts in early June, when they invited analysts to tour the Craftsman “garage” and described it as a life-changing experience. Loree has been working with the senior people at Lowe’s and feels as if they are committed to making sure the execution lives up to expectations. Lowe’s has put a massive project management office in place that is working daily to make sure everything works as planned. They need a digital transformation in order to become known as one of the great innovative companies. They do not have a massive R&D department, so they are doing a lot through their Ventures investing group, which makes $1 million to $3 million investments in emerging tech companies. They have made 20 such investments over the past three years. They have also opened a little shop in Silicon Valley that is focused on commercializing some of their breakthrough innovations. Other News: SB&D made an investment in Humavox, a provider of wireless technology based in Israel. The technology turns everyday objects into chargers, including anything from car cup holders to tool bags. SB&D says it is part of their commitment to bring wireless charging capabilities to both commercial and industrial applications. DeWalt’s new 20V MAX Tools feature Bluetooth connectivity, which allows them to connect to DeWalt’s Tool Connect app for approximate location tracking and tool customization features. The newest additions include two laser distance measurers. CEO Jim Loree wants to see emerging markets grow from 14% of annual revenue to 20%, in part by creating products specifically geared toward those countries’ needs. Trimble Trimble will acquire Viewpoint Construction Software for $1.2 billion in an all-cash deal. Viewpoint software helps with planning a construction product and blending office and field data workflows. Viewpoint is headquartered in Portland, Oregon, and has 700 employees and 8,000 customers globally. Trimble also acquired Stabiplan B.V., a Netherlands-based software company that produces 3D computer-aided design and engineering software and Building information modeling (BIM). © Robert Bosch Tool Corporation. All rights reserved, no copying or reproducing is permitted without prior written approval.
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