By Adam Coleman

SYDNEY: Australian owned electronics supplier, Pebble Electronics, the distributor of Conia, Konka and Hicon brands, has announced an alliance with equity investment giants Colonial First State Private Equity.

Pebble CEO, David Chan suggested the investment will be a major boost for the company, which will add credibility and reassure the company’s trade partners.

 “We have been in the Australian market since 1995 and we wanted to establish the message that we are a serious player,” Chan told Current.com.au.

“A lot of Chinese suppliers have come and gone. We are not aligned to one manufacturer.”

“We are very confident in the investment,” said Colonial First State investment director – private equity, Tom Fennel.

“Colonial invests in high growth businesses. We had the opportunity late last year and were attracted to the strong management team.”

Fennel could not discuss particulars of the investment but said Colonial now own a minority stake with just under 50 per cent of the business.

Chan suggests having Colonial First State on board will improve the company’s ability to source product from China.

“The manufacturers have to feel confident that suppliers will be around to pay the bills. Having Colonial on the share registry will add value to our supply chain. A lot of suppliers have made a lot of promises to manufacturers in China in the first year and then fell away in the second and third,” he said.

While Pebble anticipates further growth, the company has no plans to change its market strategy at this stage.

“It won’t change except we may hay have a broader range of products. For the moment we will stay with our core range,” said Pebble general manager – sales, Nicholas Fry.

“The bottom line is that we are an Australian company and we plan to brand and market ourselves effectively,” said Chan.