In 1968, Roy Chi Ping Chung, born in Macau, came to Hong Kong for a living and joined International Telephone & Telegraph Corp (ITT) to become a warehouse keeper where he received his first salary of HKD 280 per month.
Back to 1970s, Horst Julius Pudwill, a German who was the sales representative of Volkswagen in Asia, together with his Canadian wife came to Hong Kong. Then in 1978, Horst Julius Pudwill established a six-staff trade company together with Roy Chi Ping Chung, which unexpectedly starts a legend.
Dating back to 1980s and 1990s, western countries began to transfer their low-end manufacturing operations to developing economies including China, when lots of Hong Kong and Taiwan enterprises started to become stronger by taking this opportunity.
Techtronic Industries (TTI) was established in 1985 with an investment of USD 20,000, inspired by the name of ITT, Roy Chi Ping Chung named this company TTI. Horst Pudwill and Roy Chi Ping Chung were in charge of selling and operation management, respectively.
TTI starts its business by manufacturing electric drill and other equipment for the well-known brand Craftman under Sears Roebuck& Co., S. Within less than one year, shipment quantity of TTI at Kwai Chung container terminal reached 1 million pcs. However, Craftman didn’t have too much faith in products made in China though they are quite cheap. 
1988 saw a turning point when Ryobi from Japan came to China to look for OEM of power equipment. After negotiation, Ryobi bought 20% shares of TTI and started to place orders with it. Cooperation with Ryobi facilitated the big improvement of quality and technology of TTI products, and brands such as Bissell and Royal also turned to TTI.
Benefited by the prosperity of Hong Kong real estate market, TTI gained a 100% return by selling the properties bought 18 months ago, and the money was then used in the establishment of its plant in Dongguan. In 1990, quality control and market development offered TTI the opportunity to go public in Hong Kong.
At the beginning of 1990s, fierce competition resulted in gradual decline of annual profit when Pudwill realized the limitation of being an OEM manufacturer and started to make transformation.
In 1999, TTI purchased Vax, a dust cleaner brand operated under VAX International Ltd, with over USD7 million.
Then TTI made the most important decision to purchase the power equipment brand and operations from Ryobi, a Japanese brand, with a price of USD106 million, when Ryobi intended to sell its power equipment operations in North America. At that time Ryobi was deemed as a low-end brand by the market due to its low price. To change this situation, TTI made some transformations to this brand and improved product price by 30%, which enhanced this brand.
By owning the brand Ryobi, TTI had an important negotiation with its future major account Home Depot, an American DIY supermarket, and as a result, they signed a series of exclusive supply agreements. Up to today, Home Depot has become the biggest DIY supermarket in North America and for a time it occupied 37% of TTI’s sales performance. Over the years, purchasing Ryobi operations is still considered satisfactory by Pudwill, founder of TTI.
In 2002, TTI purchased Homelite, an outdoor product brand, from Deere& Company located in Moline, Illinois.
In the same year, a rumor said that one of TTI’s major clients Royal Appliance (had Royal and Dirt Devil brands), a vacuum cleaner manufacturer, was about to be sold. So Pudwill immediately reached Mike Merriman, CEO of Royal, for more details.
Pudwill met Mike Merriman at an expo in 1995 when facing to market competition, Royal had to reduce the price of its main product-upright vacuum from USD149 to less than USD100. After the expo, Pudwill reached Merriman saying that TTI can provide small vacuum with lower price. Pretty soon both companies concluded an agreement, through which TTI provided a product named Broom Vac with the price of USD40, and this product was sold 800,000.
Strengths of TTI at that time included:
1. Had more English-speaking employees than other companies in Asia.
2. The use of international CAD software facilitated the smooth cooperation with clients (TTI promoted industrial development in Hong Kong).
3. Cheap manufacturing cost.
4. Strong product R&D and product control technology.
In 2005, TTI purchased Milwaukee, AEG from Atlas Copco and the power equipment operations from Debro.
Roy Chi Ping Chung was granted the title of Justice of the Peace in 2005 due to his great contribution to industrial development.
In 2007, TTI purchased the a hundred year floor care brand “Hoover” from Whirlpool, a home appliance giant, with a price of USD107 million, and combined operations under Royal and Dirt Devil. As a result, TTI Floor Care became the biggest cleaning appliance manufacturer in North America.
In 2007, TTI acquired the hand tool operations operated under brand Stiletto.
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2008 financial crisis brought a big blow to TTI’s operations and stock. In the same year, Horst Puwill, founder of TTI, resigned his position as the CEO, and asked Joseph Galli Jr., who had built the tool brand DeWalt for Black & Decker’s and helped this brand win the first place on market, to hold the post of President of TTI.
In 2008, TTI decided to transform the current operations from cable cleaning tools to wireless mode. This is a very risky move to make at that time though it seems not special at all nowadays. Back then, some people even said that wireless power equipment were gimmicks. Currently TTI occupies the first place in the market of power equipment operations.
In 2013, Oreck filed for bankruptcy, and TTI took this opportunity to enter the commercial cleaning field by purchasing Oreck.
In 2013, TTI closed all dust cleaning plants owned by it and transferred this business to OEMs.
In 2014, TTI bought another tool brand-Empire.
The following are some extracts of TTI 2016 annual report:
Currently brands under TTI include:
The product line of each brand is indicated below:
Revenue of TTI in 2016 reached USD5,480 million, up by 8.8% comparing with the last year, gross profit margin being 36.2% and EBIT being USD450 million.
Divided by regions
North America: 75.9%; Europe: 16.2%; Rest of the world: 7.9%
Divided by product category:
Revenue of power equipment, accessories and hand tools was USD4.47 billion or 81.6%; Revenue of floor care and appliances was USD1 billion or 18.4%.
Comparing with 2015, revenue of TTI went up by 8.8%.
Data of 2012-2016 is indicated as below:
Revenue of TTI increased from USD3.85 billion in 2012 to USD5.48 billion.
Profit increased from USD200 million in 2012 to USD400 million.
There is a rumor saying that TTI intends to develop wireless vacuum cleaner business in 2018 by exploring its technical advantages in Battary drived power equipment, hoping to defeat its long-time adversaries-Dyson and Shark. Whether this will come true or not is left to the future.
Revenue of TTI in 2017 exceeded USD6 billion.
I’ll make detailed analysis after the official release of 2017 annual report.
