Sinoboom: Reaching for new heights

FROM HUMBLE BEGINNINGS IN A SMALL CHINESE WORKSHOP TO GLOBAL MANUFACTURER OF PREMIUM MOBILE ACCESS EQUIPMENT, SINOBOOM HAS BUILT A REPUTATION FOR QUALITY, SERVICE AND AN UNWAVERING COMMITMENT TO MEETING THEIR CUSTOMERS’ NEEDS. CEO SUSAN XU RECENTLY VISITED AUSTRALIA TO MEET THE LOCAL TEAM, VISIT KEY AUSTRALIAN CUSTOMERS AND SHARE INSIGHTS INTO WHY SINOBOOM IS BOOMING.

Susan Xu is no stranger to starting a new business. With husband Steven, she’s tried many, including selling organic vegetables. But with Steven’s experience in construction machinery as a product development engineer, they recognised the prospect of a growing global market for MEWPs, founding Sinoboom in 2008. With the success of the company in China and across
the world, a Sinoboom subsidiary opened in Dandenong, in Melbourne’s south-eastern suburbs in 2021, giving the company their first physical presence in Australia. Susan’s trip to Australia marked 15 years since Sinoboom began and her first since Sinoboom opened locally for business.

With the Australian market growing increasingly important for Sinoboom, they continue to see significant growth in market share. Susan says it’s because of their unwavering strategy of
quality equipment with localised support. “Sinoboom has a strong engineering heritage,” she says. “Our products are well engineered and focused on servicing the customer.” Her visit to local customers provided opportunity to understand their challenges, ensuring Sinoboom could continue to provide the right products, and that their parts and service business was on track with their global growth strategy. “The customer is at the centre of everything we do,” says Susan. “We believe that everybody, from the CEO to the sales, service and support teams, must remain close to
our customers so we can continue to meet their needs and requirements.” It’s a philosophy that’s served Sinoboom well, particularly following the COVID lockdowns of 2020 and 2021.
“COVID had a significant impact on our Australian and international businesses,” she says. “Covid impacted the whole industry, customers couldn’t access products from
their existing suppliers. However, we continued to invest in our supply chain, they could access our products. That opened the door for customers to take a serious look at
Sinoboom, many of whom were surprised by the quality and reliability of our brand.” She says their quality equipment backed-up by great service explains why these new customers stayed with Sinoboom. “Our team would go above and beyond in servicing customers,” she says. “This created confidence in the market and strengthened our brand.”

Another point of differentiation between Sinoboom and its competitors is how they sell in Australia. While other OEMs may use local dealers, Sinoboom’s business model is different. By setting up a subsidiary in Australia, they created a direct connection to their customers, to understand local needs and demands and ensuring they could respond quickly to any issues. They also hired local people to work with customers.
Their Dandenong facility is one of three to be established across Australia (Brisbane and Sydney facilities will open in 2024). The expanded footprint will cater for the anticipated growth in sales over the next five years.
“Expanding our parts and service is critical to our global strategy,” says Susan. “Customers expect OEMs like Sinoboom to meet their expectations with back-up support and our team members in Australia are very focused on this task.”
It’s a strategy that’s worked with growth in Australia doubling year-on-year since 2021.
Another important focus is sustainability. Sinoboom maintain a large R&D department at their headquarters in China, developing new and innovative products designed to meet changing customer needs and expectations.
“We are committed to sustainability and have made a significant investment in electrification,” says Susan. “We know job sites and hire environments will change as sustainability becomes more important to large construction companies. While we’ll continue to develop new EWP products, we’ll also look at the infrastructure and support equipment needed to drive these initiatives.”

To meet the demands of the Australian hire industry, and as part of Sinoboom’s commitment to Net Zero solutions, they offer a range of battery-powered scissors and booms including the AB22EJ Plus, TB20EJ Plus and 1323RE. To provide more options for Australian customers, the local team will also introduce lithium batteries as a standard option in 2024.
Susan says it’s important that customers know Sinoboom is in R&D and is always looking for a better way to do things.
“In Europe, the United States and Japan, we’ve hired local engineers to collect information from customers to feedback to the R&D teams so we can improve current products and develop new products that meet specific customer needs.”

They’re also planning to hire an engineer in Australia to collect information about the local market, including from the hire industry. “We’re committed to providing quality, reliable products which meet our customers’ return-on-investment expectations,” she says. As for the short term, Susan says Sinoboom will remain focused on increasing local market share.
“With the new facilities opening in Brisbane and Sydney, we’ll expand our after-market support business with parts, stock and field service being introduced to our Queensland and New South Wales customers.” “That also means hiring and training more people in servicing our equipment and providing the best support to our customers.”
“At the end of the day, we want to ensure our customers did make the right decision on partnering with Sinoboom.”