PEW spoke with Ty Harnett, Sales and Technical Director at Clipacore, to find out how he got involved in the tools market.

• How did you get involved in the industry and what do you enjoy most about your job?

After leaving school I went straight into an apprenticeship and have always strived to find ways to make the job easier which is how inventing all began and has now grown into my passion.

• What were the reasons for founding Clipacore?

During my self-employed business I broke my thumb hitting spanners with a hammer with frustration when trying to remove a core bit from the drill due to high torque tension locking up tight and missed the spanner!

• What can be done to stop counterfeit or poor quality tools finding their way onto the market?

Not sure how poor-quality tools can be stopped, however, frontline industry professionals in today’s generation recognise quality over cheap imitations. It’s also widely recognised now that investing in higher priced tools/equipment outperforms lesser quality and so, many tradespeople will agree it’s worth spending a bit more to prevent what is avoidable – re-investing.

• Do you feel that the COVID-19 pandemic will have any sort of lasting impact on the industry?

I don’t believe it will have a lasting impact, as once we resume with lesser government guidelines and restrictions in place, I feel we will all have an urgency and desire to put it all behind us and move on, and not just trades across the industry but customers who are the lifeblood of our business.

• Do you think the industry could do more to make electricians aware of the full range of specialist tool options now available to them?

There is always room to improve by embracing new innovation and delivering the latest trends in tools. As we are moving more and more digital, this makes it quicker and far more convenient to reach out and keep up to date. Manufacturers need to keep exciting their customers with what’s new in order to influence and initiate the purchase of the product. Social media is by far the fastest organic platform to get everyone talking and create a demand within the wholesalers, but content is always key as this is the driver.

• What core attributes do you focus on when developing new products?

Once identifying a gap and real market need with first mover advantage opportunity, value engineering the design is key to ensure its viable from a cost perspective with healthy margins for the wholesalers to then be able to sell onto their customers.

Other core ingredients to consider at development stage include making things as simple as possible to use with good build quality. As with any business, we are all providing a service in which establishes a brand customers can trust, so get that right and this will likely mean customers will promote your business for you and buy into your brand in the future.

Find out more at www.rdr.link/wa003