Concepcion Industrial Corp. subsidiary rebrands, expands solutions service

CONCEPCION Industrial Corp.’s commercial subsidiary is rebranding as it plans to expand its services into offering end-to-end solutions packages to take advantage of the expected growth in the construction sector.

Formerly known as Concepcion Building and Industrial Solutions, the subsidiary is now known as Alstra. It launched its official rebranding on Thursday to coincide with its plan to introduce new services and venture into other areas in construction such as security systems, fire protection, and energy management, aside from offering services and products related to air conditioners, elevators and escalators.

Despite its plans for expansion, Alstra Group Director Rajan Komarasu told reporters during a roundtable at the Green Sun – The Hotel, in Makati that they expect a slowdown in commercial infrastructure and “tall buildings” amid the government’s aggressive infrastructure-building campaign.

“It’s not a slowdown like it’s a recession. It’s more of a ‘wait and see’ [attitude by developers]. The projects are all there, it’s just [that] we feel that the next one to two years, there is going to be some sort of pull back, but that doesn’t entirely affect the whole ground in the construction industry,” he said.

Mr. Komarasu added that aside from the cautious attitude of investors in making commitments, the company has been worrying about the shortage of manpower and professionals in the construction industry which leads to the slow rate of project accomplishments.

When asked, however, about Alstra’s plans during this lull, Mr. Komarasu said that “[w]e have been doing a lot of investments. And what you see in the growth of the 17% and so on, that is actually the fruits of (our) labors that we did in the two to three years ago.”

“This is the best time for us to focus on what are the new things we can bring to the market. There are many ways we can do this. W can outsource through our sister companies or we can actually partner [with another company],” he noted.

Alstra is currently working on P14.3 billion-worth of projects, he said, but has a backlog worth P2 billion, a first for the five-year-old company, due to the incoming “pull back” from developers.

With no progress in any of the deals that the company has been pursuing, Alstra also decided to keep its investments within the country.

“We haven’t reached that far yet, but we felt that the Philippine market is huge, there’s plenty of opportunities down there (Philippines) and we haven’t really tapped [into] everything yet. When the local demand in here is so lucrative, why [also] look into exports?,” Mr. Komarasu said.

Company president Raul Joseph A. Concepcion said that they also plan to cover full building management in the future, aside from just light fixtures, elevators, and air-conditioning. Mr. Concepcion added that the set up for the service would be that building owners would pay Alstra to run the establishment, from setting up appliances to maintenance and repairs.

The current end-to-end services that Alstra will provide will include: equipment selection, engineering design, retrofit services, parts and supply, service repair, periodic maintenance, testing and commissioning, and project installation and management.

Among the brands Concepcion Industrial Corp. (CIC) carries are Carrier, Toshiba, and Otis.

CIC reported revenues of P12.3 billion last year. Alstra recorded P1.8 billion in revenue in the first half of 2017.

Alstra also launched Carrier XPower Super Plus, a new air-conditioning model, during the rebranding launch and EvoSolution forum, which is part of the company’s corporate social responsibility. – Anna A. Mogato