Bosch PH Eyes Renewed Sales Strength in 2018

Bosch Philippines is hoping to regain its momentum of growth in the country for this year after encountering a bump last year. Despite enjoying consolidated sales amounting to EUR45 million in 2017, it reflected a slight decrease, coming from EUR51 million sales mark in 2016--noting that the company enjoyed a double-digit growth over the past three years. Richard Walker, managing director of Bosch in the Philippines said that the slight decline on sales was attributed to "project awards and purchases expected in the end of 2017 were pushed into 2018." Aside from that, Bosch Philippines' Mobility Solutions business got moderated after enjoying strong years of growth. Walker said that they are expecting to regain the strength toward the end of the year as the company experienced a good start during the first few months of the year. "We had a good start into 2018. The local economy continues to benefit from stronger consumer spending and robust demand from the construction and manufacturing sectors," he said. With that, Bosch Philippines is also planning to increase the number of associates employed at Bosch in the country from the current 500 (as of December 2017) with their business expansion plans. One of the main drivers of their continued sales strength is the local E-commerce. Based on the records, growth rate has reached over 400 percent in 2017. In the same year, the number of company’s accredited online vendors increased to 20. At the same time, the company has expanded its digital product catalog to include more than 8,000 SKUs by the end of 2017. In 2018, the number is expected to rise by 25 percent. Based on a report, a recent study by Google and Temasek claimed that the Philippines's online shopping industry is poised to increase by more than 30 percent over the next ten years. The country's high mobile penetration rate is seen as one of the major factors in propelling developments in e-commerce. This offers opportunities for Bosch. "We expect to continue our strong growth with e-commerce over the coming years," Walker claimed.