BUILDING MATERIALS
Tough, reliable Lasher
Ian Kendal speaks exclusively to Johann Gerber about Lasher’s fight against
its products being copied.
Q. Tell us about some of the major
is to copy our wing label, proudly South African
consumer is taking the product back to the
challenges currently facing Lasher.
label or branding and colours and then just take
retailer and de manding a solution. Whether the
The biggest challenge we face is the copying of
out the word Lasher and put their own name in.
retailer knows that the product is counterfeit or
our products. As a brand leader we constantly
We are presently busy with a very interesting
not, due to the product being Lasher branded,
strive to innovate and bring new products to
case that I will follow up with you at a later date
the complaint ultimately lands up with us
the market. We find that we get good support
as I am not in a position to talk about this now
via the retailer or disgruntled consumer. This
and once the product is established in the
due to the legal ramifications.
enables us to track down the counterfeit
market, we find that it is being taken overseas
product source very quickly. The scary statistic
and copied in the form of an inferior quality
Q. What is the impact of these cases on
remains though, that since the implementation
product that is brought back into the South
the market?
of the CPA, of the 30 plus complaints received,
African market and sold for much cheaper.
The impact is mainly felt by the end user and
99% of these have been counterfeit product.
obviously Lasher. The end user has a bad
The up side is that there a lot more life-long
Q. It seems that the Lasher brand is the
experience with the fake product and we are
loyal Lasher customers once we have resolved
most copied tool brand locally at the
left to fix this. I must, however, say that from
the problem.
moment. Care to tell us about some of
a marketing point of view, this does create a
these challenges?
wonderful opportunity that our marketing and
Q. In your opinion, what needs to happen
Definitely in the South African and Africa
sales team have learnt to take full advantage of.
to help Lasher in this fight?
market. The obvious challenge for us is that
By the time we have rectified the problem and
There are very stiff penalties in place (as much
the copied products are always of an inferior
educated the customer, we are left with a loyal
as R5 000 per item seized) if found guilty, so
quality which inevitably fails. This obviously
Lasher customer for life as they say, “Every dark
300 counterfeit bowsaw blades at a cost of R5
damages our brand and necessitates in us
cloud has a silver lining.”
each could ultimately cost you R1,5 million. Our
having to invest a lot of time and effort in
legal system needs to be able to process these
rectifying and educating our client base. This is
Q. Surely Lasher must incur major costs
cases quicker. From seizure of goods, it can
time and money that could rather be spent in
to curb this practice?
take as long as two years to get a result. Due to
marketing to assist our customers in selling
Unfortunately this is true. As mentioned earlier,
this, one tends to settle out of court and due
our product.
this is money that could be spent in far more
to the nature of the crime, there is normally
constructive ways to benefit all the players
a non-disclosure agreement attached to the
Q. Care to share some of the strangest
in the supply chain. It is, however, a very
settlement. I believe we should have a ‘Name
cases?
necessary expense and I suppose the price one
and Shame’ campaign whereby the guilty
Products are normally copied 100%, right down
pays for being a brand leader.
parties are exposed in the media. We have
to the Lasher logo, font and payoff line – “Tough,
Reliable Tools, Guaranteed!” Another favourite
decided to pursue the current case and not
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HARDWARE AFRICA 2014
settle due to the fact that it is pretty open and
consumer foots the bill? How do we
With the
implementation
of the CPA, there
are now minimum
quality standards
that the suppliers
of products are held
accountable too.
Q. I suppose at the end of the day the
shut and once the conviction is handed down,
lesson the load in future?
we will be able to go to press with an article
Yes, I would have to agree. I must say
and pictures to more fully expose what is going
that we have found that the Consumer
on in our industry.
Protection Act has really helped here. With
the implementation of the CPA, there are
Q. Do you believe other companies are
now minimum quality standards that the
facing the same challenges as Lasher?
suppliers of products are held accountable
Most definitely. Off-hand I know of companies
too. Consumers now have recourse and this
in the plumbing, ironmongery and abrasives
benefits us in that with the ‘knock off’ products
industry that have had to deal with
being inferior, when they prematurely fail, the
counterfeiting. HA