Since the SCM group’s inception in 1952 there have been many well-known machine brands such as Morbidelli; Stefani and DMC to name only a few. The new marketing strategy seen at Ligna was to have the SCM brand on every single machine.

The main marketing change seen with SCM at Ligna was the branding. Since the group’s inception in 1952 there have been many brands such as Morbidelli; Stefani; DMC and others that have been part of SCM for a while. Each brand as a stand-alone item is very strong and has made significant technological improvements over fifty years. Each one is a market leader but as an individual brand that is part of a larger group, the individual brand names become diluted. The strategy seen at Ligna was to have the SCM brand on every single machine.

SCM Australia’s Lee Gabbett explains “What this means is that we have an over-arching corporate brand but we still keep that dedicated technology.” Every machine will now carry the SCM logo in addition to the specific machine brand within the group. To the consumer there won’t be any real change but over a period of time there will be many more SCM branded machines in Australia and this will be more representative of the SCM group’s wide range of technologies. An average cabinet maker with and SCM panel saw; a DMC sander and maybe a Morbidelli CNC machine actually have three machines from the SCM group but the strength of the group is not reflected in the branding.

The aim of SCM Australia is to ensure that the industry understands all the products of the SCM group. Not just the historical equipment but also the engineering and inventory management systems and the high-production, robotic and handling systems. “The strength of the group lays it its ability to satisfy all sectors of the woodworking industry. We’re forecasting a 30% growth in staff before the end of the year and we’ve had a 25% increase in sales since we became SCM Australia. We can offer more machines and more parts ex-stock.” says Lee.

As a visitor to most of the production sites in the SCM group, Supplier’s Phil Ashley is well-aware of the synergies between the many brands within the SCM group. Over time; users will appreciate more of the group’s technologies and will be more aware of the size of the group. At Ligna Lee said “The strength of the SCM group comes from our traditional machines. In Australia we sell a lot of these machines including edge-banders, sliding table saws and traditional machines; we’re famous for it. The last five years has seen a big growth in the demand for CNC and nesting machines in particular for us and we actually bring in machinery specifically designed for Australian manufacturing and we bring these into Australia by the container-load. We give our customers exactly what they need.”