Last year was a record for TTI: $15.3 billion in sales, with Milwaukee up nearly 8%. Sales grew in North America and grew strongly in Europe. But in the Middle East, Africa and India, sales actually slipped a little. Everywhere else is up. This one region is flat.
That's surprising, because the Middle East is building like never before. Saudi Arabia alone has over $900 billion of projects underway. So the problem isn't a lack of demand. The problem is that the tool business is changing — in four clear ways — and TTI hasn't fully caught up here.
This brief lays out those four shifts in plain terms. Then it gets practical: how to make TTI's partners stronger, how to grow the sales channels, and the marketing moves that win. The goal is simple — turn TTI MEA & India from a soft spot into one of the group's growth engines.
None of these is a guess about the future. All four are already happening on the ground. The brief explains each one simply, then turns to the practical plans.
Big construction firms don't want to spend huge sums buying hundreds of tools. They'd rather pay a monthly fee and let the tool company handle repairs, replacements, even theft. Hilti already offers this across the Gulf. It's like a phone contract — but for power tools. Once a firm signs up, they tend to stay for years.
Milwaukee already has the technology — ONE-KEY tracks every tool. What's missing is the service package wrapped around it. Right now TTI sells tools. The market is shifting to selling a service, and that's a stickier, more profitable relationship.
Build a "Milwaukee Service Plan" — and run it through TTI's partners, so they earn the steady monthly income and TTI locks in the customer. Not a copy of Hilti. A version that uses Milwaukee's much wider tool range as the advantage.
On big projects, the engineers decide which tool brands workers are allowed to use. They write it into the project rules. If Milwaukee isn't on that list, the tools never get a chance — workers literally aren't allowed to buy them.
Milwaukee makes the best specialist tools in the world for plumbing and electrical work — press tools, pipe tools, cable cutters, core drills. But the best tools mean nothing if Milwaukee isn't on the list. Today the brand often wins because workers like the tools, not because the project specified it. In tough years, that's fragile.
A focused programme to get Milwaukee onto the approved lists of the top 30 engineering firms in the Gulf. Train their engineers, show them the tools, and make it easy to write Milwaukee in. Once specified, it's in for the whole project.
Gulf governments are pushing to phase out petrol garden tools — leaf blowers, trimmers, mowers — because of pollution and noise. Everything is moving to battery. This is driven by government rules, not by what shoppers want.
TTI makes excellent battery garden tools — Ryobi and Milwaukee MX FUEL. But they're not being sold to the people who buy in bulk: city councils, big property-maintenance firms, and the landscaping companies on the giga-projects. These buyers don't shop in tool stores, so the usual channel doesn't reach them.
A dedicated effort to win these bulk buyers — with a simple money-saving story (battery vs petrol over five years) and a clean, green message. This is also where Pierre's #RacetoZero work becomes a sales tool, not just a brand message.
The biggest deals in Saudi Arabia are now decided right at the top — by the leaders of the mega-projects, often face-to-face in Riyadh. Competitors like Bosch have a senior leader based there, sitting in those rooms.
TTI works through strong local partners who have everything needed to operate in Saudi Arabia — that part works well and shouldn't change. But for the very biggest deals, it helps to also have a senior TTI person in the room, alongside the partner. Right now the brand sits one step back from the table.
A senior "key projects" lead based in Riyadh — working with the partners, not replacing them. The partner handles supply and service; the TTI lead helps win the deal. The partner gets bigger orders; TTI gets the seat at the table. Everybody wins.
TTI's business in this region runs through partners — the distributors who carry the tools, hold the stock, and serve the customers. Most tool companies treat partners as order-takers. The better way: treat them as a team you actively coach — with clear targets and real support.
The simple idea: one clear scorecard per partner. Top performers earn more support and bigger territory. Strugglers get a clear plan to improve. Everyone knows exactly where they stand — and exactly how to grow.
Underneath the partners are two routes to market: the traders (the shops) and the contractors (the firms that buy direct). Both grow best when they're strengthened through TTI's partners, not around them.
Here are the marketing moves that actually move the needle in this region — the kind I've run before, and the kind that build a brand people choose by name.
The Big 5 in Dubai, Big 5 Saudi, and Saudi Build are where the whole industry gathers each year. Don't just take a booth — own the show. Live "torture test" demos. Head-to-head challenges against rival tools. Real jobsite simulations. Capture every visitor as a lead, and train them right there on the stand. Be the brand everyone talks about on the drive home.
A branded demo truck that visits the big project sites. Workers get to hold the tools, feel the power, try them on real work. Nothing sells a tool like using it once. Milwaukee runs these around the world — TTI should scale it across the Gulf.
Team up with technical colleges and contractor training centres. Certify workers on Milwaukee tools. Trained workers stay loyal to the brand they learned on — and they bring their crews and their next employer with them. A trained worker is a loyal worker.
This is Pierre's home turf — #RacetoZero. Governments now want cleaner, quieter, safer sites. Position Milwaukee, AEG and Ryobi as the clean-jobsite brand: battery instead of petrol, dust control for worker health, less noise. Turn the green message into a sales tool — simple cost-and-emissions comparisons buyers can show their bosses.
Show the tools at work on the famous projects. Photos and short videos of Milwaukee tools building the giga-projects, real worker stories, shared online where the trades actually are. When people see Milwaukee tools building NEOM, the brand borrows that prestige. In a past role, this kind of content grew online following 60% and leads 35% — the same playbook works even better with a brand like Milwaukee behind it.
A simple, four-step view to get the conversation going — not a fixed plan. The order would follow whatever is already underway inside TTI.
What this brief describes is a real job — leading marketing and business development for TTI across this region. I've done every part of it before, just under a different roof: run the partners, grown the channels, owned the shows, built the brands, and worked with the same engineering firms and trade channels.
If that's useful to you, I'd love to talk.
The brief above is the résumé.
These aren't rhetorical — I genuinely don't know the inside answers, and they'd shape how I'd sharpen everything above.
Written in May 2026 by Mohammed Vaseeuddin — 16 years in Gulf construction materials, sealants, firestop and power tools. Most recently leading marketing and operations for IKK Group / Unitech across MENA (distributing AEG power tools), and currently leading regional marketing and business development at Star Asia Vision Corporation.
This started as an honest, plain read of where the regional tool market is going, for a leader whose work I've followed and respected for years. The map of where my own experience fits (Section 06) follows from that read — it's there if it's useful.
Reach: juventer1987@gmail.com · +971 52 585 9425 · Dubai, UAE
TTI 2025 Annual Results · March 2026
MEED Saudi Giga Projects · Q1 2026
Middle East Power Tools Market · 2025–2030
AGBI Giga-Projects Tracker · March 2026
Hilti Middle East · public information 2024–2026
ROSHN & Vision 2030 · official sources
UAE Net Zero 2050 · KSA Saudi Green Initiative
All figures from public sources, as published at the time of writing.