The Festool Brand

Iconic, innovative with loyal fans

How does a product become iconic? Or better: How can you keep a loyal customer base and at the same time get them excited about new things? This is what Supervisory Board Chairwoman Barbara Austel and Sascha Menges, Chairman of the Executive Board, discussed about Festool in the podcast series "Brands of the Century" by the renowned German ZEIT publishing house. The following interview is an abridged version of the podcast article. The full version is available in German on Spotify, iTunes and with other common providers.

Barbara Austel
Chairwoman of the Supervisory Board

Sascha Menges
Chairman of the Executive Board

How long has Festool been around as a brand? And how did it all begin?

Barbara Austel: My grandfather founded the company together with a partner in 1925, as Fezer & Stoll. The purpose of the company was to repair stationary woodworking machines. However, after a few years the partner decided to leave the company and my grandfather continued working alone with his team. At some point the idea came up that one could not only repair the machines, but also build and even improve them. Personally, it is still a mystery how my grandfather was able to do this - during a world economic crisis and the Second World War. Then, in the 1950s, the first hand-held power tools emerged. That was a real breakthrough, because for the first time you could bring the tool to your workplace. So, the business moved to power tools. At the same time, another branch of business was established with pneumatics and industrial equipment. These areas continuously diverged over the decades, so in 2000 we decided to split the companies. Thus, on the one hand, the Festo brand existed with automation technology and pneumatics, and Festo Tooltechnic became Festool. In the meantime, with Festool, we have become a force to be reckoned with in the international power tool market.

What makes your brand strong?

Sascha Menges: A strong brand is not a coincidence, it’s the result of hard work over the decades, of focus and entrepreneurial spirit, with solutions that strengthen the brand. Personally, I've been excited about this from the very beginning, how there’s aspiration to offer professionals - better and more sophisticated tools and this runs through everything we do here at Festool - for our core segments of carpenters, joiners and painters. We also have many employees who come from exactly these three trades and have brought their expertise to the company through previous experience. As a result, we have the situation where we develop products by professionals for professionals. Our employees are the key to the success of our company.

How loyal are your customers?

SM: I would say extremely loyal. I would even go so far as to say that once you've had a tool from us in your hands, you can't get away from Festool.

BA: Phew, Sascha, that's a pretty bold statement (laughs).

SM: All jokes aside, customer loyalty is extremely important to us and not taken for granted, but something that is constantly put to the test. After all, loyalty doesn't happen by itself; loyalty is the result of satisfaction. The brand promises something, but in the end, it is the customer experience - an interaction with the brand, in our case with the tool - that is a deciding factor. The brand promise is not only kept, but also exceeded again and again. It's that excitement, that surprise, that then leads to customer loyalty.

"Innovation is not just 'being inventive,' something only becomes an innovation when it is successful in the market because it fulfills a real customer benefit."

Sascha Menges, Chairman of the Executive Board

It really sounds like you guys have incredibly loyal fans.

BA: That's the case, we have real fans. We stay in touch with many of them through trade fairs and roadshows, and currently more recently on social media. Sometimes we even receive lovely letters or e-mails. This bond is great, but at the same time it sets the bar very high for us, because we want to keep inspiring our customers about our quality and product solutions.

Where does this love for the brand come from and who are the people who love Festool so much?

BA: I can't say exactly where this passion comes from myself. Our main target group are craftsmen who work with the machines, in interior finishing, as carpenters, painters, joiners. They earn their money with our tools, but there are also real Festool fans amongst them. And then there are specialists like instrument makers, stage designers, or people who renovate or build ships elaborately. And the target group from the maker scene and the DIY sector, who realize small projects or big dreams with our products. We would probably find our biggest fans here. What they all have in common, I think, is that they appreciate the durability and the robustness of our tools, but also the perfectionism we put into the development of new ones. We use attention to detail and if you appreciate that, you've come to the right place. When we receive compliments such as "You have really considered our thoughts for this new product!” that is of course great praise for us and makes us very proud.

SM: Professional craftsmen are creators. They create something with their hands, with their minds, and of course with the tools. And this is where enthusiasm comes into play.

Is there anything you are particularly known for?

BA: Firstly, the plunge saw, which allows you to plunge into the wood very safely, and the guide rail, which allows you to make very straight cuts extremely precisely and easily. We invented the guide rail technology in the 1960s, have been developing it ever since, and today it is impossible to imagine the industry without it. The same applies to the dust extraction system from the 1980s. Here, an employee came up with the idea of connecting a household vacuum cleaner to a power tool. This has developed into the practice of vacuuming the dust - an essential health aspect. This was difficult to communicate to customers at first, because at that time they measured the grinding performance of their tools by the dust in the air. With extraction, that dust was almost completely gone, and it took some convincing that it was a good idea.

What do you have to do as a brand to achieve lasting success?

SM: The most important thing here is innovation. Innovation is not just "being inventive," something only becomes an innovation when it is successful in the market because it fulfills a real customer benefit. Safety, performance, ergonomics and robustness - we want to be perfect in these areas.

"The demand for high-quality craftsmanship is greater than the availability of qualified skilled workers."

Barbara Austel, Chairwoman of the Supervisory Board

You have always remained loyal to Germany with your company and also produce at your site in southern Germany.

SM: Indeed, we have a very clear commitment of the Festool brand to Germany as a location. We are a great exception in our industry. Just recently, we built another production site near our headquarters. This commitment has always proven to be the right one. We appreciate the speed, the interlocking and the quality that’s possible here at this location. Even now, with the global dislocation of supply chains, we have been able to draw one or two advantages from this strategy. We manufacture around 80 percent of all Festool machines in Germany and that is also a key aspect of our success.

What awaits us in the coming years and what might need to change at Festool? How can change and tradition work together?

BA: I think it depends on how you interpret tradition. I think that if tradition means "We've always done it this way" and you're not willing to look left and right, then it doesn't work with progress or change. But if tradition means "We have a strong root from which new things can grow," then that is a great strength. The topic of digitization is already more difficult for us as a hardware - and product-loving company. We do a lot and have great ideas, but it didn't come naturally to us. Other topics such as sustainability have always played a major role. We have always made sure that products are durable and can be repaired. An important aspect of sustainability is a very exciting topic for us, and one that is easier for us to take up. It is not a matter of course that we are still in family hands after almost a hundred years, and successfully so. But we still have plenty of for the next hundred years to keep things exciting.

What are the current trends in trade?

BA: A lot is currently changing in trades. In carpentry, for example, the value chains and the place where value creation takes place are changing. Everything is no longer built from scratch in the workshop; instead, a lot is bought in from suppliers, who in turn are highly automated. This applies, for example, to kitchen cabinets or finished drawers. Assembly on the construction site is also subject to change; here it is increasingly critical that things run quickly and according to plan and without rework. Otherwise, the craftsman ends up with nothing at all. Another issue is the shortage of skilled workers: the demand for high-quality craftsmen work is greater than the availability of qualified skilled workers. Many business owners despair over this.

"If tradition means 'We've always done it that way' and you're also not willing to look left and right, then it doesn't work with progress or change."

Barbara Austel, Chairwoman of the Supervisory Board