14 Construction Supply Specialists

Industry in action

World Wars and nursery rhymes have both played their part in helping the HB Fuller name become synonymous with success, right across the globe. Tracey Porter turns the spotlight on its Australian operations

128 years in the making

Construction Supply Specialists 15

A watertight moral compass has motivated Carl Pimentel to dedicate more than half his life to serving the

industrial adhesives sector.Since graduating as an industrial

chemist in the early 1990s, the 46-year-old has spent 28 years working with the smell of adhesives, sealants and fillers embedded in his nostrils —spending all but 10 of those for the publicly listed, US-headquartered specialty chemical company, HB Fuller.

Pimentel was appointed managing director of the firm’s Australasian arm last August off the back of a six-year stint at Fuller’s South-east Asia and European branches, and admits he finds it difficult to imagine working anywhere else.

“What I really appreciate is that the company has a strong moral compass in the way it does business, and a very high regard for the ethics of the way we conduct ourselves,” he says. “We want to win, we want to be successful, but the way we go about it, in winning the right way, is above all else. For me, that makes it very easy to say that I work here and feel good about working here, which is the reason why I’m still here.”

Originally set up as a one-man paste shop, the HB Fuller story dates back to 1887 when Harvey Benjamin Fuller travelled from Chicago to St Paul in the US state of Minnesota with the sole aim of refining and selling glue. Single-minded determination, together with clever marketing—which included Mother Goose parodies such as ‘Maid was in the garden, hanging out her clothes, along came a blackbird and nipped off her nose. When she found her nose was off, what was she to do? But go and stick it on again with Fuller’s Premium Glue!’—struck a chord with homemakers and manufacturers alike, allowing Fuller’s to make its first acquisition just four years later.

By 1905, the company was shipping its products not only across the US, but also England, Germany and Australia. The demand for quality adhesives during World War 1 and 2 further propelled sales so that by 1971, it was ready for public ownership.

Now accountable to shareholders demanding better international sales, Pimentel says the company went on an expansion drive in the early 1970s to help support its operations within North and Latin America.

“They were looking to establish footprints in Europe and Asia Pacific. At that time Japan and Australia were two of the more mature markets and so were selected as the areas to do that.”

HB Fuller’s Australian office threw open its doors in Melbourne in 1975 and began manufacturing from the site just three years later, with a key focus of providing water-based products in the packaging and paper industries.

Seeking to expand into other sectors, the company moved to its current site in South Dandenong, Victoria, in the early 1980s and first entered the construction-based segment a short time later.

Today, HB Fuller’s Australasian headquarters employs around 70 staff with a further 20 sales staff dotted across each Australian state and in New Zealand. With the Dandenong plant being the region’s sole manufacturing facility, the HB Fuller headquarters has grown to encompass 21,5000sqm of land, allowing it to produce thousands

of tonnes of its multi-use adhesives, sealants and fillers each year.

“When we initially started here locally we were very much in a business-to-business mindset, so things like carton closing, envelope manufacture, book binding—those were the sort of industries that were more prominent in the products that we made.

“There’s definitely been a shift. We’ve now got a much stronger emphasis on the construction business and our product line—our product development—and our sales reflect that,” says Pimentel.

Currently HB Fuller International has a direct presence in 44 countries and customers across 100 countries. It boasts annual sales of around $2.1 billion with the Australasian region accounting for just under five per cent of that.

While Pimentel concedes the firm’s diversity means it has competitors across many different industries, its stiffest competition comes from rival adhesive and sealant makers Sika, Bostik and Selleys. Reluctant to

“We’ve now got a much stronger emphasis on the construction business and our product line—our product development—and our sales reflect that.”Carl Pimentel, managing director, HB Fuller Australia

A household name for over 128 years

HB Fuller produces thousands of tonnes of product each year

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divulge just how much of the pie his brand commands, Pimentel says he is comfortable with where his firm sits.

“Market share is a difficult one when we’re across so many different categories, but we’re a strong player and like to see ourselves as holding our own in terms of those three competitors within the construction segment.

“We see ourselves as being competitively priced in terms of the products and services we offer to our customers. Like anything, you need to be able to deliver value that justifies the price point and we feel that we do that.”

Pimentel says the company has growth targets globally of somewhere between five to eight per cent per annum and “we see ourselves as somewhere in that bracket as well”.

He says future growth is likely to be driven by demand for the replacement of mechanical fasteners and the rise of more composite materials.

“Safe, reliable, multi-functional type products are driving technology and pushing innovation and we continue to see that within the construction segment. In the end, time is money so if people can use something that they can trust and they’re able to move from one part of the job to the next faster

Industry in action

HB Fuller Australia general manager Carl Pimentel.

swings that happen during the normal fluctuations of different markets.”

To help get a feel for what is being experienced by the company’s 44 other international offices, Pimentel is required to attend annual face-to-face meetings and participate in quarterly phone hook-ups with the “global guys”. In addition he conducts monthly meetings with the brand’s representatives across the Asia Pacific region.

It is at meetings such as these that future acquisition opportunities are first mooted, with the international HB Fuller business absorbing four competitors since September 2014 alone.

For his part, Pimentel will provide scant detail on the low hanging fruit ripe for acquisition, stating only that the company is always looking for potential acquisitions to support its organic growth.

“If it’s in the right target market, either for us to be able to enter a new segment or to strengthen our position and product offering in a current segment, then that’s always on the table, including in Australia,” he says.

He adds that regional or global acquisitions with an Australian presence will also be considered. “Even within Australia itself, if there is something that makes sense to us that would really support our local business, then that’s something that I would take up to the business to look at.”

then that’s helpful. And if they can then reduce the amount of products that they have to use to get the job done then that’s something that we see as a trend as well.”

Pimentel says HB Fuller’s relationship with the CSS group is classed as a key strategic account and one that will also help drive ongoing commercial success.

“It’s not just about us increasing our sales by taking share off the competition; it’s about us helping CSS members grow their sales within the adhesive and sealant sector. We take the view that the more we can understand what’s happening in our customer’s environment, the more we can help them grow their business, then that will translate to success for us as well.”

Pimentel says the relationship the brand enjoys with CSS members is just one of the many advantages operating within the Australasian market affords the company, with the ability to remain flexible and command more open dialogue with its customers a key component.

“I do think the fact we are involved in lots of different segments gives us the ability to switch it around a little bit, so if one segment is down, another may be up, allowing us to manage the business

16 Construction Supply Specialists

HB Fuller is always evolving.