Elevating the vertical transport industry

Published on Tuesday, 04 December 2012 17:44

Written by Roderick L. Abad

WITH the influx of inferior products in the local market, which mostly come from China, poor quality is, more often than not, associated with Chinese goods. This general notion, however, was proven wrong by entrepreneur Manuel Carlos Ilagan, who personally witnessed and experienced how an elevator brand from the province of Guangdong has elevated the vertical transport industry the world over and, hopefully, in the Philippines.

“Based on my experience when I was putting up this building [the Kingston Tower], I had to purchase an elevator. I went into canvassing from other well-known brands, but the response was not that aggressive. Maybe they are too big in such a way that they are too busy to provide me what I need,” recalled Ilagan.

Fortunately, Francis Ondoy introduced him to IFE Elevators, which has been in the market for a couple of years. Unfamiliar with the brand, Ilagan personally visited its factory in China, where he observed the manufacturing process. Convinced that they were on a par with their counterparts in terms of quality, he ordered several for his construction project.

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Confident that IFE had the same quality and riding comfort that more expensive elevator brands provide, he eventually thought of making IFE Elevators more popular in the Philippines just like in Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, the United Arab Emirates, Iraq, Bahrain, Iran, Nigeria, Congo, Rwanda, Venezuela, Chile, Bolivia and Australia. Thus, his partnership with IFE Elevators Co. Ltd. of China came into being in simple ceremonies held recently at the Kingston Tower, Madrigal Business Park, Alabang, Muntinlupa City.

“With the booming economy of the Philippines, we found out that it’s strategic to have a business partner like IFE Elevators Philippines Inc.,” said IFE Elevator Co. Ltd. executive manager Jason Bai. “We want to communicate to our customers that we provide only the best price and best service to them.”

IFE Elevators Philippines Inc. offers several products, such as vertical lifts, elevator types such as passenger and freight, hospital bed, scenic or panoramic, dumbwaiters and home lifts. Apart from their exclusive distribution in the country, the company also handles their sales, marketing, installation, maintenance and after-sales service. It also has the resources and competent technical personnel in place to take care of all concerns regarding the business.

Seeing a lot of construction going on nationwide, Ilagan disclosed that they will initially cater to medium-rise developers until next year. But eventually, he said that their “main target is to penetrate the high-rise construction.”

To meet the demand of every client, the firm’s general manager, Ondoy, noted the flexibility of IFE design. “The brand is experiencing continuous growth nowadays primarily because of its flexible designs that can ably suit the needs of clients or builders,” he said.

Aside from that, he cited that as building needs get more expensive, many builders are looking for options to reduce costs sans compromising the quality.

“This is where IFE stands—in a very competitive presence,” he stressed, pointing out that they offer the market a truly competitive pricing scheme. “Actually, our first price is 20-percent lower compared to other elevator suppliers.”

Because the vertical transport market deserves only the best riding solution, IFE Elevators, he added, also guarantees clients of prime quality. In fact, the company is classified as a triple “A” elevator manufacturer in China, certified ISO-compliant (ISO9001:2008, ISO14001), and backed by a dynamic research and development team of engineers and technical people to constantly enhance and provide users with innovative, faithful and efficient vertical transport solution designs.

“We are very much confident about the elevator technology that IFE elevators will provide to the local market since we’ve been specializing in elevator design and installation for more than 20 years already. We can proudly say that IFE elevators also possess the same level of accuracy, safety and quality that our more established counterparts have,” Ondoy stated.

Looking forward, Ilagan said of IFE Elevators business in the Philippines: “With high quality and reliability of our products, which I personally inspected in China, I think we can make it here. I’m very confident of that.”