Yoma JCB, Myanmar’s official distributer of British-made JCB tractors, will invest $5 million over the next few years to grow the brand amid the country’s infrastructure boom, according to the company’s CEO.
The firm last week launched 8 JCB models, including the Backhoe Loader and Excavator, for distribution through parent company Convenience Property’s (CPCL) 14 dealerships and plans to expand to 20 dealerships next year, Melvyn Pun, CEO of Yoma JCB, told Myanmar Business Today.
“The actual capital outlay to do this JCB business won’t be very big initially… but over the next two, three years we would expect to spend around $5 million to improve our branch network as well as probably having a bigger flagship,” he said.
Myanmar is experiencing unprecedented levels of infrastructure building on the back of billions of dollars of foreign aid and a rapidly growing economy which is driving a demand for construction machinery.
“If you look at this country the most glaring thing is a lack of infrastructure: the roads, there’s not much of a railway network… the domestic airports need to be expanded, the ports need to be expanded… all of these are really heavy infrastructure work.
“We may feel there’s a lot of activity now, but I think its a fraction of what we’ll see five years from now or 15 or 20 years from now, so this will be a very long-term business for us,” Pun said.
Launched in January this year, Yoma JCB is owned by Yoma Strategic Holdings subsidiary Convenience Property Company (CPCL), the official distributer of New Holland agricultural machinery Myanmar.
CPCL has seen 40 percent year-on-year growth in unit sales of New Holland machines over the last three years and subsequently Myanmar has become New Holland’s largest market in Southeast Asia, Pun said.
“In my mind in three years time JCB’s business will be as large as our New Holland business is today… this will be a significant business for Yoma.”
Source: Myanmar Business Today
