efco is a premium brand of handheld lawn equipment manufactured by Emak Italy. According to Lloyd Shankel, national sales manager at efco/Emak USA, the efco brand is quite popular on the world stage, keeping company with other well-known brand names like Stihl and Husqvarna. But efco has some work to do here in the U.S., which is why building brand awareness will become a priority in 2014.
But first things first. efco is moving from its current U.S. branch in Wooster, OH, to Paynesville, MN, by the end of this year. Shankel says the move is part of a company-wide consolidation effort to help achieve better economies of scale which, in turn, will result in better service to efco's network of independent distributors and servicing dealers across the country.
"Right now we have roughly 1,200 active dealers," Shankel says. "That's down a bit from a couple of years ago. We'd naturally like to add more, but we're not interested in simply putting dots on the map."
In other words, efco is looking for quality dealers—as opposed to a quantity of over-crowded dealers—to help sell and support what Shankel says is a high-quality product line. He's especially proud of efco's Burn Right engine technology which allows for an 80% reduction in emissions and 40% reduction in fuel consumption.
The efco product line includes consumer- and commercial-duty handheld and backpack blowers, chainsaws, string trimmers, hedgetrimmers, pole pruners and augers.
