online marketplace manufacturing

Founder of Growing Platform, Toolots.com, Aims to Revolutionize Industrial Equipment Market

Toolots Founder Jason Fu addresses his employees in the 2017 State of the Company Address.

CERRITOS, Calif. - May 22, 2017 - Toolots Founder Jason Fu is building much more than his business, a full-service online marketplace based in Southern California that fuels the global manufacturing industry. The early veteran of industrial eCommerce and chief executive officer said he is building an “ecosystem” with Toolots – a platform to revolutionize the eCommerce marketplace for industrial machinery, equipment, and technology.

In remarks to all Toolots employees as part of his State of Company Address Friday, Fu outlined this message, envisioning the future of the company he formally launched in May 2016. The chief executive for Cerritos-based Toolots described his own personal journey as a business owner – the lessons learned, the ground gained, and effective strategies to push the enterprise far beyond a simple distributor of the tools of the manufacturing trade.

Fu, also Chief Executive Officer for Toolots, outlines the fiscal growth of the company he launched in May 2016.

With plans to streamline the current business model and develop nationwide brand recognition as the company’s international footprint expands, Fu pointed to recent growth in Asia, citing the establishment of Toolots Taiwan last month. The company has two additional facilities in China, located in Hangzhou and Ningbo, as well as a distribution center in Houston, Texas. But the growth isn’t limited to the physical realm. As part of the flourishing Toolots supplier network, Fu reported that more than 120 businesses from the United States and China have partnered with the California company to sell their industrial products – both domestically and internationally – on Toolots.com.

“We are adding a lot of new products on a daily basis,” Fu said. “We are moving along very fast.”

Providing genuine customer service is one of the most important components in any successful business, Fu said. As an immigrant from China who followed his dream of building businesses in the United States and becoming a U.S. citizen, the Toolots chief executive learned English, striving to be able to more effectively communicate.

In his first State of the Company Address, the Toolots founder spoke directly to all his employees and outlined the company's expansion plans.

When Fu arrived to the U.S. in 1996, he was motivated by his dream to open an online marketplace for industrial equipment. More broadly, he yearned to bridge the gap between U.S. and Chinese equipment manufacturers, fostering improved relations between both countries, he said. The language barrier leads to lots of dollars lost for companies, he said, and it demonstrates the need for clear communication – not only with customers and potential customers, but also employees and colleagues within the industry from around the world.

“For us new immigrants, we hit the same roadblocks, but we all succeed when we try,” Fu said.

The industrial space has additional roadblocks, the chief executive pointed out. Some customers are uncomfortable purchasing heavy machinery online, without the ability to see it in person, and are more accustomed to the traditional distributor model complete with segmented territories. Toolots changes that; the Cerritos showroom includes some of the most popular online items, and new machinery or stock is proudly displayed for walk-in customers, in addition to high-quality photos and videos of many products posted on Toolots.com.

Toolots engineers install a robotic device on a plastic injection molding machine to greatly speed up production.

Another roadblock for the industrial equipment industry, particularly eCommerce businesses, is providing effective warranty protection, service and maintenance to online customers in a simple way.

“After-sales service is the biggest barrier for industrial supply” Fu said. With the release of its companion smartphone application YuuTool, Toolots is redesigning how online marketplaces provide after-sales services to customers. By connecting users of industrial machinery with qualified service technicians, in a similar manner to the way Uber connects those in need of a driver with a quick, affordable ride, YuuTool brings people together. This focus on service distinguishes Toolots from its competitors and other providers of industrial equipment, Fu said.

“We’re providing big services through YuuTool. It’s all within the Toolots ecosystem, where everything has value,” he said.

Toolots Chief Strategy Officer ZeMing Gao speaks to the company's employees May 19 during a companywide address.

“The Toolots business model is revolutionary,” added Toolots Chief Strategy Officer ZeMing Gao, stressing how Fu intelligently constructed a vertical business that can be easily scaled to other horizontal markets.

A business only succeeds with its employees, Fu pointed out. Addressing all Toolots employees in a video broadcast in Mandarin and English, the chief executive said, “You are all part of the foundation, what we build upon. It is on this foundation that we are constructing a building, one that went from zero to something that will bloom.”

It is vital that each department within Toolots has a “good foundation,” he added, and strives to continually inject fresh vision through the hiring of powerful leaders.

“New blood is bringing big experience, and this will help us in ongoing efforts to continue building a great team,” Fu said. In the coming weeks, Toolots will have significant announcements about new executives joining the enterprise. Those announcements will be released soon.

Fu pivoted from discussion of Toolots, its business model and its growth to Alibaba, an eCommerce firm that has grown exponentially in recent years. Alibaba started as a simple directory of information, similar to Yellow Pages, to help manufacturers find and locate new suppliers. What began as a simple online platform created by Chinese national Jack Ma to provide an online marketplace of suppliers has evolved to become a behemoth as the world’s largest retailer, even surpassing Walmart in domination of the marketplace, according U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filings in 2016. As of 2014, Alibaba had a market value of more than $231 billion.

Explaining that the key to Alibaba’s success was creating a platform to connect businesses worldwide and fulfill their needs, Gao suggested that Toolots is on track to one day become an influencer in the global trade environment. “You want your platform to be so essential that you can’t imagine what life or business would be like without it,” Gao said, stressing the need to offer something completely original from your competitors. He is confident Toolots is that platform.

To sign up for Toolots' free webinar for manufacturers on May 19, please RSVP via email to cfoy@toolots.com

Toolots engineers install a robotic device on a plastic injection molding machine to greatly speed up production.

CERRITOS, Calif. – May 15, 2017 – Toolots, Inc., a Southern California-based online marketplace for the latest industrial equipment, machinery and technology, invites interested biomedical and advanced manufacturing companies to join a no-cost educational webinar on the market conditions and outlook for original American products in mainland China. The webinar takes place Friday, May 19 at 1 p.m.

As the company’s US-China Medical Device Summit approaches, taking place June 28-30, in Ningbo, China, the Cerritos-based company invites any interested firms, executives and representatives to participate in the second webinar in the series. Attendees will discover on the ground conditions in China, and learn how the online marketplace and the comprehensive services offered to Toolots partners can give companies a leg up in the market for innovative medical products. During the seminar, you will learn about the growing demand for US-manufactured medical devices, how much more Chinese customers are willing to pay for foreign-made health products, devices and advanced technology, and hear how your company can gain by attending the US-China Medical Device Summit next month.

The US-China Medical Device Summit will be hosted by the leading national trade association in China for medical devices and biomedical products, and is co-hosted by Toolots. Toolots invites your participation Friday in our no-cost online seminar to learn more. To sign up for the webinar or for additional information, please contact Toolots Director of Public Affairs Chris Foy at cfoy@toolots.com. Private consultations are also available to explore how Toolots can help your company break into the lucrative Chinese market and elsewhere in the region, where Toolots has a growing international footprint.

Toolots is excited to announce the addition of a new vendor, Woodward Fab, to our growing E-Commerce marketplace. Based in Hartland, Michigan, Woodward Fab manufactures a complete line of patented hand-held bevellers, bench models, sheet metal shearing tools, power feed machines and more. Woodward Fab, a leading manufacturer and supplier of sheet metal fabrication tools for decades, continues to expand its lineup “in order to offer industrial sheet metal equipment at affordable prices,” according to the company’s website.

Woodward Fab, based in Hartland, Michigan, manufactures a complete line of patented hand-held bevellers, bench models, sheet metal shearing tools, power feed machines and more.

Woodward Fab products will be available for purchase by U.S. consumers on Toolots.com in the coming weeks. Since 1966, Woodward Fab has been making the tools needed to cut, bend, shrink, stretch and strengthen metal, and also offers custom work on dies to help customers bring precision to their next project, the company stated.

Woodward Fab also offers anvils, bead rollers, pipe and tube fabrication equipment, de-burring tools, vises and much more, and possesses more than 49 years of industry experience crafting the tools of the metal fabrication trade.

Woodward Fab's throatless rotary shear can easily cut any shape up to 1/8" thick with its forged steel frame, ratcheting head, and other features.

Toolots is pleased to offer our domestic customers new, quality sheet metal fabrication tools with the addition of Woodward Fab to our roster of vendors, and continue growing our list of US-based suppliers. For purchasing information, please check back at a later date to visit the Woodward Fab marketplace on Toolots.

Toolots is excited to announce the addition of a new vendor, Saw Trax Manufacturing, to our growing E-Commerce marketplace. Based in Kennesaw, Georgia, Saw Trax manufactures a complete line of panel saws capable of cutting glass, mat, aluminum and other commonly used materials. According to the company’s website, Saw Trax’s most popular product is their innovative series of vertical panel saws, but they also offer other specialized hand cutting and table top cutting tools, as well as saw kits, dolly carts and coro claws.

Saw Trax, based in Kennesaw, Georgia, manufactures an innovative line of panel saws.

Saw Trax was founded in 1988 by Michael Della Polla, who was unsatisfied with the existing design of cutting guides used in conjunction with circular saws. A few short years later, and Saw Trax was manufacturing panel saw kits based on an original design that has been continually improved upon since 1996, according to the company’s website. Each and every piece of Saw Trax equipment is manufactured at the company’s headquarters in Georgia.

The Saw Trax 1000 Series of panel saws includes many standard features plus an accessory package that offers operators ease of use and convenience.

Saw Trax proudly states their vertical panel saws are “truly the best in their class,”pointing to proprietary, innovative features including a steel bearing system, patented alignments using the Accu-Square Alignment System, and a range of inserts allowing users to cut nearly any kind of sheet goods, all with one saw.

Saw Trax products will be available for purchase by U.S. consumers on Toolots.com in the coming weeks. Toolots is pleased to offer our domestic customers new, quality saws and other cutting tools for the sheet metal industry with the addition of Saw Trax to our roster of vendors, and continue growing our list of “Made in USA” suppliers. For purchasing information, please check back at a later date to visit the Saw Trax marketplace on Toolots.

CERRITOS, Calif. - May 9, 2017-  Toolots released a sneak peek of its new YuuTool 2.0 smartphone application, to be released in Summer 2017 for free on iOS, Android, and desktop platforms. The latest version of the YuuTool app, like its original iteration, focuses on connecting the manufacturing community through an engaging and convenient, user-friendly platform. However updates within the app will expand user interaction and improve existing functions.

The official YuuTool 2.0 image released by Toolots this Thursday highlighted two major features within the app. The first feature displayed is the new social media integration and sign-in options for Facebook, Twitter, and Google +. This will allow app users to connect with friends from multiple social platforms, and make new connections within the industry to discuss industrial machinery, repairs, troubleshooting and more. The second feature and main component of YuuTool 2.0 is the optimized Finder feature connecting machinery owners and technicians. Updates within the Finder feature will localize maintenance and repair services for machinery owners and create jobs for technicians while increasing industrial repair efficiency and speed, all based on the user’s location using GPS data.

Stay tuned for more information regarding YuuTool 2.0’s development in collaboration with CybEye Inc, and for the official  iOS, Android, and desktop release dates. To stay up to date, follow Toolots on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn or check out our Blog.

For questions regarding YuuTool 2.0, contact info@yuutool.com via email or call (562) 653-4165 by phone.

About Toolots

Toolots, headquartered in Cerritos, California, offers an online marketplace and international distribution channel for factory-direct industrial tools, machinery, and technology. The user-friendly platform provides fast, easy access to high-quality, affordable equipment to manufacturers. Toolots provides comprehensive services for companies around the world who produce industrial machinery and equipment, helping streamline the marketing, omni-channel sales, warehousing, fulfillment and after-sales service. On the customer end, Toolots simplifies the purchase, delivery, installation and warranty of industrial technology, machinery and components, and upholds product quality through a vetted network of vendors and service technicians. The company’s dedication to fostering international trade relations passes on cost savings to the consumer, contributes to reduced downtime, improves productivity and expands a manufacturer’s reach. Toolots has strategically located warehouses, showrooms, and offices across the United States, China and as of May 2017, has expanded into Taiwan. For more information visit us online at www.toolots.com.

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Part of the company’s ongoing expansion, Toolots Taiwan will help serve international community

Toolots signed documents securing a new facility in Taiwan to better serve the global industrial machinery and equipment market

TAIWAN – April 20, 2017 – As part of the ongoing growth of Toolots, Inc., the company is expanding its global reach with the addition of a new facility in Taiwan. This week the company signed documents securing a new Taiwan office and creation of Toolots Taiwan, helping to better serve the international community and boost the marketing, sales and fulfillment of products from around the world, including United States-made industrial equipment and tools, throughout the region.

Toolots Chief Executive Officer Jason Fu said the new location will employ six full-time employees, adding, “They will work with our international team to build the Toolots brand and help to better locate, market, sell and deliver industrial products from all over the world, including the United States and Asia.”

Fu said, “This Taiwan office is a symbol that Toolots is growing fast, but we are growing intelligently. There is great demand in Asia for American-made industrial equipment and with this new location, and Toolots will be able better serve its international customers and fulfill orders for those in-demand products.”

Likewise, the Toolots Taiwan business development team will coordinate with leadership at the company’s California-based headquarters to identify Asian products that are in high demand within the U.S.

About Toolots

Toolots, headquartered in Cerritos, California, offers an online marketplace and international distribution channel for factory-direct industrial tools, machinery, and technology. The user-friendly platform provides fast, easy access to high-quality, affordable equipment to manufacturers. Toolots’ comprehensive services streamline the purchase, delivery, installation and warranty of industrial technology, machinery and components, and uphold the quality of important goods through a vetted network of vendors and service technicians. The company’s dedication to fostering international trade relations passes on cost savings to the consumer, contributes to reduced downtime, improves productivity and expands a manufacturer’s reach. Toolots has strategically located warehouses, showrooms, and offices across the United States and China. For more information about Toolots, visit their website at www.toolots.com.

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Konger, based in Ningbo, China, manufacturers highly engineered machines

NINGBO, China – April 18, 2017 – Toolots, Inc. leadership and its business development and public affairs team visited with the operators of a manufacturing facility in China that produces highly innovative plastic injection molding machines - all made using the finest Austrian-built components. The meeting with Konger, based in the city of Ningbo, was part of an ongoing trade mission to eastern China to connect with new potential suppliers of industrial products to the American manufacturing market.

Toolots China Chief Operating Officer Mason Wang, Toolots US COO Raymond Cheng and Jerry Qi, Konger General Manager, discuss the company's latest machinery

Konger produces a wide range of lines of plastic injection molding machines. Their signature machine, part of the Konger Chameleon series, has the ability to mix two to three different colors in endless combinations and its injection technology reduces deferment within the mold itself, lending to much longer mold lifespan.

The high-tech factory has the capability to produce about 50 to 60 new machines per month, said Konger North America Sales Director Lawrence Song, adding that demand for these products is high; their customers come from all over the world, from the United States to Malaysia. Konger General Manager Jerry Qi said that he would put his machines up against any competitors, confident in their state-of-the-art technology and the highly engineered components within the injection system.

Konger GM Jerry Qi explains what sets his plastic injection molding machines apart from the competition

“Our specialty is producing machines using the latest technology designed in Austria,” Song said during the meeting, before taking Toolots through their production facility in the outskirts of Ningbo. The Chameleon Series, Song said, “mixes two or three colors so that each plastic product comes out in uniform size and shape,” but when complete each item comes out with a unique look unlike the others.

Toolots Plastic Injection Molding Engineer Gary Krause explains the function of a Konger machine

Toolots US Chief Operating Officer Raymond Cheng, Toolots China Chief Operating Officer Mason Wang, Director of Global Commerce Services Grant Montgomery, Plastic Injection Molding Machine Engineer Gary Krause, Product Manager Tony Chen and Director of Public Affairs Chris Foy attended the meeting, as well as other representatives from the Ningbo-based manufacturer. Konger is considering joining the Toolots online marketplace to specifically reach the American manufacturing consumer, providing quality machines at competitive prices using the latest European-engineered technology.

Toolots toured the company's manufacturing facility, inspecting each stage of the manufacturing process for a wide range of machines. Konger machines are capable of producing plastic products of all types and sizes, from handles for disposable razors that blend two-to-three colors to cups of various thickness and much more. As part of the company’s comprehensive testing process, machines are run dry through a transformer prior to packing to ensure operation is at peak levels.

Toolots continues to meet with industrial manufacturers during its trade mission to China, and will have additional announcements in the coming days about additions to the California-based online marketplace’s expanding product line.

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The Toolots Inc. cross-border business development and public affairs team recently visited Haida Manufacturing's plastic injection molding machine factory  in Ningbo, China. Toolots is helping the state-of-the-art company develop a brand specifically for U.S. manufacturers customized to American specifications, introducing them to consumers later this year.

Haida showcased a robotic arm Tuesday that more than doubles the speed of the plastic injection molding process, reduces downtime and removes the need to pull each completed product from the mold by hand. The Toolots engineering team, based in California, traveled to China to train on the robotic arm and Haida's latest plastic injection molding machines to better serve the United States manufacturing industry.

Toolots provides industrial equipment, technology and tools to support global manufacturing. The company has a growing presence in the U.S. and Asia, and manufacturers on both sides of the Pacific use the Toolots online marketplace to sell their innovative, reliable and competitively priced equipment to industrial customers from around the world.

Haida Foreign Trade Executive Sean Xiao and Toolots Director of Commerce Services Grant Montgomery examine some of Haida's largest plastic injection molding machines

Stay tuned for more updates from our ongoing trade mission to China to establish connections with new suppliers of innovative, quality industrial equipment to support U.S. manufacturing.

Robert Zhang brings over 20 years of keen fiscal management to Toolots, Inc.

CERRITOS, Calif. - March 23, 2017 - A veteran financial services director has joined Toolots, Inc. as its new chief financial officer, the California-based company announced this week. Robert Zhang, who has more than 20 years of experience within the financial services industry in the United States and Asia, was selected to fill the position after careful consideration of his unique vision for Toolots including rapid yet sustainable growth, additional training and focus on fiscal operations to support the business model.

Mr. Zhang has a long history of bringing his expertise to wide-ranging enterprises and helping lead them toward greater financial success. He co-founded Pandtong Capital Limited, a qualitative portfolio-trading firm based in Hong Kong, and for nearly 20 years prior served as the managing director for Morgan Stanley and J.P. Morgan Chase as its head of Asia equity technology. At Morgan Stanley, Mr. Zhang was responsible for the development of technology for various trading markets and personally hired and trained over 300 developers over the course of 3 years to support sustained growth at the company.

As an integral member of the Toolots executive management team, Mr. Zhang will help to formulate the company’s future direction and put it into play through specific, tactical initiatives. Through implementation of best practices developed over his vast experience managing financial operations in multiple countries, he will help streamline the company’s internal functions to increase profitability and efficiency.

Mr. Zhang is a graduate of Shenzen University in China, where he earned his business degree,  and received a Bachelor’s in computer science from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Stay tuned for additional updates in the coming days as the Toolots executive team continues to grow.

About Toolots

Toolots, headquartered in Cerritos, California, offers an online marketplace and international distribution channel for factory-direct industrial tools, machinery, and technology. The user-friendly platform provides fast, easy access to high-quality, affordable equipment to manufacturers. Toolots’ comprehensive services streamline the purchase, delivery, installation and warranty of industrial technology, machinery and components, and uphold the quality of important goods through a vetted network of vendors and service technicians. The company’s dedication to fostering international trade relations passes on cost savings to the consumer, contributes to reduced downtime, improves productivity and expands a manufacturer’s reach. Toolots has strategically located warehouses, showrooms, and offices across the United States, as well as in mainland China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong. For more information about Toolots, visit their website at www.toolots.com.

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Toolots is pleased to announce the addition of a new vendor, Garvin Tools., to our E-Commerce marketplace and Global Commerce Services initiative. Garvin Tools manufactures industrial precision tools and equipment. Garvin Tools’ products will be available on Toolots.com April 2017 for sale to customers located domestically in the U.S. and internationally in China.

Garvin Tools’ products include precision measuring tools, hand tools, jewelry tools, lubrication tools and equipment, lathe tools, rotary tables, boring heads and accessories. All products undergo a controlled heat treatment and rigorous inspection by experienced engineers to ensure quality, accuracy, and performance are up to Garvin Tools’ performance standards. Toolots is pleased to offer our domestic and international customers industrial tools and equipment through the inclusion of Garvin Tools. For purchasing information, visit Garvin Tools’ marketplace on Toolots.com.