Founded in 2006, Fictron Industrial Supplies Sdn Bhd is now the sole distributor for a Germany brand KEB in Southeast Asia with over 4,000 clients in Malaysia only. With a presence in Singapore and more countries coming, and overseas projects in Turkey, India, Uzbekistan and China, it’s setting itself up for global dominance.
Fictron Industrial Supplies was founded more than 14 years ago. Since then, the company has remained dedicated to providing the best industrial solutions. Its operations are centred around supplying industrial electronic, repairing electronic components, and providing technical training for its customers, resellers and partners.
Presently one of the leading distributors in the region, Fictron Industrial Supplies’ founder Keith Ooi is still pushing for more and ready to transform every industry worldwide as according to the Industry 4.0 technology.
Fictron Industrial Supplies: Filling the gap
After 6 years in engineering line, working for top companies, Keith saw the opportunity of setting up a repair engineering centre as in the past, if a machine needed to be fixed, they had to get expertise from other country such as Germany and Japan.
“I saw the gap when it comes to repairing automation and I think that our local engineers can do the job well too. So I started with supplying different parts of automation and we also do installation and customisation for clients. Eventually, we do repairing as well but during that time, only a few local engineers can do it,” he shared.
Fictron, the sole distributor for Germany technology, KEB
When he approached KEB to be an authorised repair centre, Keith’s objective was crystal clear. He wanted to train more local engineers to be on the same level as international talents. Fictron spends a good fortune on upskilling its manpower by sending them to Germany for training annually.
“Just December last year, KEB appointed us to be the sole distributor for their technology in Southeast Asia. We have an office in Singapore, and in a short time we are going to set our presence in Vietnam, followed by the Philipines and the rest of Southeast Asia.”
Every hardship is worth it
Behind all of the achievements and innovations, Fictron’s early years wasn’t easy. It all started with him, Keith and 2 salespeople. However, he emphasises that they are lucky as they know what they are doing. Surprisingly, they managed to break-even in the first month of operation and made a profit in the first year. He further adds that the timing was perfect as the demand was quite good back then and managed to get quite a few clients.
Currently, the team has expanded to over 20 staff and he’s ready to expand further. Though, the biggest challenge for him is hiring the right candidate who share the same vision as the company.
“Sometimes I have to turn down business because we can’t cater due to lacking of manpower and time constraint. It’s frustrating when it happened so the best step to take is growing the team.”
Bringing Malaysian talents all over the world
Asked about the greatest achievement he had achieved so far, Keith values every single baby steps. The recent one was when the team managed to complete the 6-month task in Turkey.
“I’m utterly proud to bring Malaysian engineers all over the world. It shows that we don’t have to rely on outside talent,” adding that they have a few more international projects coming in.
Life is all about obstacles and overcoming it
The future for Fictron is exciting and busy, as Keith has big plans for the business. He is planning to have a presence in Kota Kinabalu and Johor in a short time.
He’s also in the progress of introducing the new IR 4.0 technology to clients that could help them save cost and money and increase the productivity of the machines effectively.
The best piece of advice
“The most important thing in business is to never give up. If you want to run a successful business, you must be able to fall and stand up again. I learn from experiences and I’ve gone through a lot of difficulties. To be successful, you must have grit – meaning you must have the courage.”
Discussion about this post