TCL brand stands

The assurance was given to shareholders last Friday during TCL’s 2017 annual general meeting (AGM) at Hilton Trinidad, St Ann’s.

The re-branding question came from shareholder, Peter Permell, who said he recalled reading about it “somewhere”.

While he gave no specifics, there was a March article, published in another local newspaper, which reported on TCL’s alleged intent to change its name to Cemex.

“Is (re-branding) a possibility? If so, I suppose there may be some advantages, in terms of brand equity, going that particular route as opposed to staying with TCL.

What is the likelihood of that happening, in terms of a time frame?” Permell asked.

TCL chairman Wilfred Espinet, speaking from the head table, was the first to respond.

Declaring that, “in today’s news cycle I don’t know what is real news and what isn’t,” Espinet made it clear however that, “from my perspective, certainly there’s no intent to change the brand, anywhere on the table, as we speak today (May 26).” “More importantly,” Espinet added, “we’ve been spending on fullpage ads in all of the newspapers.

Not only here (Trinidad and Tobago) but also in Barbados, the Lesser Antilles and the Windward Islands, where we have been attacked with (imported) Turkish cement.” Espinet reminded that in all of these ads, which warned against using cement more than 120 days old and which encouraged consumers to “keep it fresh” and to “keep it local”, TCL highlighted its brand of products.

“So it would be, to me, not a very sensible thing to spend that kind of money (on ads). So if we were doing that (re-branding), it would be very unlikely.” TCL’s managing director Jos? Luis Seijo Gonz?lez also shared his thoughts on re-branding the company.

“It would be wrong. It would be a big mistake, if we change our commercial brands. We have a very high brand equity.” However Seijo did say that “there are other instances where we could use our new partners (when dealing with) some suppliers in Germany and so on.” CEMEX S.A.B. de C.V. (Cemex) is a multinational building materials company head-quartered in San Pedro, near Monterrey, Mexico.

As stated in Espinet’s group chairman’s review in TCL’s Annual Report 2016, “Cemex now owns 69.83 percent of TCL.” He noted that this is subject to final approval by the TT Stock Exchange.

Espinet stated that on January 9, through its wholly-owned direct subsidiary, Sierra Trading, “Cemex revised its offer price” from TT$4.50 per ordinary share to TT$5.07 per share “with the option for shareholders to be paid in US dollars at US$0.76 per share.” “Despite another recommendation to reject the offer by a special committee of the TCL board, again based on an Ernst & Young Fairness Opinion, the revised offer received overwhelming response, taking the Cemex shareholding in TCL from 39.5 percent to 69.83 percent, just short of its initial target of 74.9 percent,” Espinet stated in the report.

Speaking with Sunday Newsday following the AGM, Espinet said, “I know, as a director of the company, we are unaware of any attempt to change (re-brand).” “As I explained, the amount of money we’re spending on our existing brand, it is just nonsense for us to spend that and then after rebrand.” Sunday Newsday also spoke with Seijo, who reiterated, “We don’t have any intention to change commercial brands.” “We do have a very high brand equity, so we don’t want to lose that. So we intend to keep all our commercial brands.” Regarding the use of Cemex’s name with overseas suppliers, he said, “When we speak with some suppliers, for example on the purchasing side, it’s useful to use the Cemex name.” “So we try to leverage that into a bigger purchasing power. That’s why we’re trying to combine both things (TCL and Cemex brand usage).” He explained that “where Cemex has a global agreement, we take advantage of that now.” “Cement equipment is mainly produced in the US and Europe, so that’s where we take advantage of it (Cemex name),” Seijo said.