Festool develops and produces power tools for professional users. The Festool brand has represented power tools for the toughest demands since 1925 – for almost a century. This commitment is reflected not only in products, but in every other aspect of the company’s activities as well. Festool ensures that customers can concentrate on what is most important: Their work. In order to help customers in their everyday work, it’s Festool’s goal to achieve optimal user-friendliness and maximum convenience in everything that they do.
As experts for their trade, the company is deeply rooted in professional craftsmanship where particularly in-depth knowledge and expertise of their trade sets us apart. Festool achieves this by learning with and from their customers every day. Together with customers, they test the tools and develop them further so that the tools meet the stringent requirements of the trade and day-to-day construction work.
Easy Engineering: Which are the most futuristic products / solutions from your portfolio?
FESTOOL: We have a table saw, the TKS 80, with which it is impossible to cut your finger, and we have a PowerStation which can supply 3 680W permanent power. We also have an innovative plunge-cut saw, and a percussion drill with KickbackStop technology.
E.E: What are the characteristics of these products / solutions?
FESTOOL: Table saw TKS 80: The responsive sensor on the integrated SawStop AIM technology provides increased safety when sawing in non-conductive materials. 80mm cutting height, extendable work surface, stopper and angle stop enable flexible work, even with large workpieces.
Cordless Plunge-cut saw TSC 55 with KickbackStop. The KickbackStop reduces the risk of injury from kickback when sawing or plunging the tool into the workpiece. Brushless EC-TEC motor combined with lithium-ion batteries for maximum cutting power.
Cordless percussion drill TPC 18/4 with KickbackStop. The QUADRIVE with four gears for every working situation: From screwdriving with 50 Nm torque in first gear to precise drilling at 3600 rpm in fourth gear. Extremely powerful, brushless, and therefore long-lasting, EC-TEC motor
PowerStation a high-performance energy storage solution, allows tradespeople to be independent of traditional power sources. With 3 680 watts permanent power and up to 18 000 watts short-term power. 1 500 watt-hours of stored energy – for most applications, that is enough for an entire working day, and only weighs 16 kg.
E.E: Tell us about the company’s long-term goals / prospects.
FESTOOL: Developing products that last for decades – and that tradespeople can always rely on. With optimal performance, together with absolute robustness. Providing tools and system solutions of the highest quality, with which excellent work results can be achieved. Quickly and easily. Even for very specialized applications of different trades. Developing tools so that they are perfectly designed, right down to the very last detail. Tools you can use straight away, intuitively, straightforwardly, with perfect ergonomics, which you can feel from the first use. Where health and user safety are kept in mind equally.
E.E: Tell us about product innovation and how does it impact the future.
FESTOOL: We continuously develop groundbreaking solutions, and innovations. Today and across the whole of the company’s history, it has been important to focus on having “no gimmicks, not everything that is technically possible, but added value for customers” for product developments. As far back as the very beginning of the company’s history as Fezer and Stoll, it has been associated with technical innovation, the first mobile chainsaw, which took over the difficult and, until then, manual work on site.
E.E: How will product innovation help the customers?
FESTOOL: Developing products that last for decades – and that tradespeople can always rely on. With optimal performance, together with absolute robustness.
Providing tools and system solutions of the highest quality, with which excellent work results can be achieved. Quickly and easily. Even for very specialized applications of different trades.
Developing tools so that they are perfectly designed, right down to the very last detail. Tools you can use straight away, intuitively, straightforwardly, with perfect ergonomics, which you can feel from the first use. Where health and user safety are kept in mind equally.
E.E: How do employees shape your company’s future orientation?
FESTOOL: We have over 3000 employees worldwide. Enthusiasm for our products is not just hot air. It is quite common to find people who have been working at the company for 20 or 30 years. By now, there are whole families who work at Festool. Festool enables passionate people to achieve ambitious goals. Passion and fascination with the tools are always tangible: Many of our employees’ hobby rooms look like a carpentry workshop.
E.E: How does the digital transformation affect your products / business?
FESTOOL: We believe that IoT is very important. Our focus is on digitalizing and personalizing tools to give customers real added value. Our Bluetooth® battery packs form the technical basis for our IoT functionality. Essentially, these act as a gateway in the communication between our machines, such as between the tool and the mobile dust extractor for the remote switch-on, or between the tool and our Festool Work App.
We are in the process of developing smart, and digital products for the market. These are business- and customer-oriented technology driven solutions to fit the needs of the changing industry.
E.E: Tell us about research and development in your company.
FESTOOL: We develop, plan, and produce our own machines. The vast majority of our machines, approx. 80% (in terms of volume), are manufactured in our own plants in Germany. There is a further Festool production site in Ceska Lipa (Czech Republic). Here, machines are produced exclusively in accordance with our defined Festool quality standards, meaning products with the well-known, unconditional Festool quality.
We hold several product patents, and won lots of product awards for innovations, and design. Our huge R&D department is working daily on the best of our innovations, and have the plans for years ahead, to be able to introduce new products each year.
E.E: How do you overcome the new challenges and this more competitive environment?
FESTOOL: We try to adapt continuously and invest a lot to increase or productivity. We diverse our supply chain and look for alternative suppliers. This is a hard, and time-consuming process of course, as our quality requirements are very strict, and high.
We do our best to outgrow our competitors, with introducing a lot of new products, and keeping our focus on innovation, and product development. Keeping in mind what our customers’ needs the most, we manage to introduce tools which help them achieve their goals.
As I mentioned before, most of our production is in Europe, so it gives us a bit more flexibility with logistics, however still some of our components are coming from farther away, which sometimes makes the supply chain more vulnerable.
E.E: Tell us about the company’s future strategies and how will you adapt to the future.
FESTOOL: Our goal of course is to grow, and develop further, and to increase our market share. Our main aim for future innovation is the cordless world, where we develop a lot of new tools. We believe that the demand of the market is really in this field, so that’s where we concentrate to most.
We plan for the long term and aim for sustainably profitable growth, to ensure our independence as a family company for long into the future.
In doing so, we are particularly committed to acting in an environmentally friendly, fair, and successful manner in the long term. The standards we set ourselves for the future in the area of sustainability are correspondingly high so that the Festool brand can continue to be a market leader in future generations.