AEG becomes Lafert as MD takes on France

AEG Electric Motors has adopted its Italian parent`s name in the UK, to become Lafert Electric Motors. At the same time, the company`s managing director, Nigel Evenett, has been given the extra responsibility of running Lafert`s operation in France.

When the UK company was set up in 2001 it took the AEG name because it was felt that the brand (which Lafert acquired when it bought AEG`s low-voltage motors division in Spain in 1999) was better known than Lafert in the UK and would help to establish the business here.

"The AEG name helped to overcome any initial resistance to our motors, giving our customers confidence in our product," Evenett (above) explains. "Now, with our products established and proven, we believe the time is right to trade under our own name."

Lafert`s UK operation now accounts for 8% of the Italian global group`s sales (which totalled €71m in 2005), making it the group`s third-largest market after Italy and Germany. Lafert hopes that Evenett will repeat the UK success in his new additional role of MD at Lafert Moteurs in France. In the UK, sales manager Brian Bannister has been promoted to UK sales director.

Evenett believes that Lafert has benefitted from a shift in the UK towards customised motors. More than 70% of Lafert`s business now comes from motors tailored to meet customer`s needs.

One area when Lafert has been winning business in the UK has been in adapting versions of its motors for use as generators in renewable energy generation applications. For example, it already supplied more than 4,000 machines for use in the 1kW Windsave domestic wind turbine.

B&Q, which started to sell the £1,500 wind turbines at the end of last year, says that the Windsave is already generating the biggest turnover of any of its 40,000 product lines. It expects to sell 20,00-30,000 of the machines this year. This will make Windsave, Lafert`s largest UK customer.