Duncan Industries

Duncan Industries:

Duncan industry was founded in 1991 in Quebec, Canada. The Duncan industry produced a product called the "Duncan Lift". The founders name was Mark Duncan who worked for another Canadian subsidiary and when he introduced to them his new idea they didn't take it into consideration so he left the company and started a business of his own, producing the "Duncan lift".

His main focuses while designing were quality, safety and workmanship. When Duncan hit the market with his new well-designed product, in so little time he became the leader in automotive lift safety. This product was in the market by 1991 and he sold about 23 of them which led him to reach sales volume of 172'500$ and by 1999 he already sold 1054 hoists and had sales of almost 10 million USD. And Mark always added something new to the product, a new feature on the lift to make it safer and of course by providing a high quality product, durable and with a 5 year warranty.

The 60% of his sales were to the US market and 40% were to the Canadian market. By the end of 1999, Duncan industry had reached into a 40% of the market share in North America but his growth started to slow down and Marc wanted to put the company back on the growth track.

And for the purpose of expanding its market and according the studies made by his team he came up with two conclusions, actually he ended up having two options:

1st option: Expand sales in the US market, but both Mark and Pierre felt that the US market had unrealized potential. Because the population of the US market was almost 10 times the size of the Canadian market but the wholesalers' objective in US was to sell hoist but not necessarily Duncan Lift.

2nd option: Entering the European market: The European market was attractive because of its sheer size and lack of internal barriers. However, Duncan industries have 3 options for expansion into the European market: Licensing, Joint Venture, and Direct Investment.

In 2000, Pierre met Philippe, the