China Daily Global Edition (USA)
Bühler Group salutes ideal business environment
The Swiss-headquartered Bühler Group is seeing rapid growth in the Chinese market thanks to its embedded business operations in Wuxi, Jiangsu province.
As a specialist company for providing machines, plants and services for the grain, food and advanced material processing, Bühler has been operating in China since the 1980s.
In 2011, Bühler (China) Investment Co Ltd was founded in Wuxi with a total registered investment of $30 million.
As the regional headquarters, Bühler China coordinates all sales activities and handles all customer service-related business for China, Japan, South Korea and other Asian countries.
Bühler said the move has allowed it to offer a better service to customers, including repairs and replacement products and fast customer service through a tight network of domestic service stations.
“Wuxi is a very good city, and it has very friendly environment. The local government has provided a lot of help and support for the company’s development over the years,” said Dieter Voegtli, president of Bühler Goup China and Asia Pacific.
“During our development in Wuxi, we met some questions and challenges. For example, when we wanted to expand here we met the challenges of land,” Voegtli said. “The Wuxi government gave us support with obtaining new land use rights. It also provided some incentives for our foreign employees,” he added.
To date, more than 3,000 employees are working to meet the individual demands of Chinese customers. Trained specialists are available for after-sales service throughout the life cycle of production plants.
In addition to Wuxi, which is home to Bühler’s largest factory in the world, the company has factories in Changzhou, Hefei, Shenzhen, Beijing and Xi’an.
Bühler China has also become an important innovation hub. In the company’s R&D center, research teams from China and the company’s headquarters work together on new products and solutions.
State-of-the-art labs, application centers and training facilities ensure that customers stay ahead in the market, the company said.
China is now the largest market for Bühler Group and its total sales revenue in China reached 4 billion yuan ($615 million) last year, making up around 20 percent of the group’s total. Roughly 50 percent of its Chinese revenue came from Wuxi.
“I think that Wuxi is a very active city. The government here really helps companies that are looking to settle down and do business. They always listen and try to understand your problems, and try their best to provide solutions,” Voegtli said.