Roberts: Emphasizing Safety Features Boosts Sales
As tool and fastener specialists, many Specialty Tools & Fasteners Distributors Association members know a lot about their markets, according to Robin Roberts, senior VP of sales for Protective Industrial Products.
“For comparison, let me give you an idea of the size of the market for a few notable segments that I think everyone in the audience can relate to,” Roberts noted in his Associate State of Manufacturing presentation to the Specialty Tools & Fasteners Distributors Association convention in Phoenix.
The following figures include both industrial and construction consumption:
Abrasives – $5B
Power Tools – $3B
Hand Tools – $5B
Fasteners – $12B
Personal Safety Products – $7.3B
The $7.3B PPE market can be segmented into a variety of product areas.
Hand Protection 30%
Apparel 21%
Footwear 17%
Fall Protection 5%
Above-the-Neck 16%
Respiratory 10%
The consumers of Personal Protective Equipment are very diverse and span three principle areas – industrial or manufacturing, construction and others like utilities, mining and transportation.
“I began my career in 1979 and back then fall protection was most commonly a safety belt with a single D-ring and a six foot nylon rope lanyard with snap hooks on both ends,” Roberts explained. “We were as focused on training the users to not use the lanyard as a “tow rope” as we were about a proper tie-off point.”
The end-user paid about $50 for the belt/lanyard combination.
Today, however, the standard is a full body harness with a retractable shock-absorbing lanyard system that sells for about $300.
There are other areas that have been impacted by the need for a safer workplace.
“Nearly every manufacturer in this organization has incorporated features into their products to improve safety on the jobsite and in manufacturing facilities.”
Examples include:
Pneumatic tools have been engineered to reduce noise,
Platform ladders to eliminate falls,
Ergonomic roto tools that reduce vibration and repetitive motion injury for the worker,
Non-sparking, brushless DC motors that eliminate the potential for accidental fire, and
Gas lifts on job-site boxes to make them easier to open and eliminate crushing.
Roberts emphasized that the statistics indicate the market is “significant.”
“Your customers are becoming increasingly aware of the costs of an inadequate safety program. In fact, 100% of your customers are purchasing some form of personal safety products.”
These factors influence Roberts to think that “now is the time for those of you that have not looked at this market to do so.”
Make sure that your organizations are fully aware of the safety features built into your product selection and that your customers are fully aware of their benefits, Roberts explained.
One of the most important responsibilities of any company is to train its workforce.
“Many distributors are facing the challenge of integrating a new generation of employees with very little experience in their industry.”
These distributors need the help of the manufacturing community as trainers, Roberts noted.
“We as manufacturers must make every effort to offer training to ensure that our distributors’ employees are capable of properly representing our products, their application, and their use.”
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