Arburg has founded its own subsidiary in Taiwan, which officially started work on 1 April 2016. This is an important milestone for the further expansion of the global network and activities in Asia. With its location in Taichung, the new organisation is logistically perfectly positioned in an important, strongly growing industrial region of Taiwan. This important market is nothing new for Arburg, as the company has had an agent there in the form of C & F International Corp. since 1981. By taking on sales and service employees from its former partner, the company is ensuring expert customer support that can be further expanded in future.
Andrea Carta, Arburg Overseas Sales Director, explains this strategic decision: "Due to Taiwan's great importance as an innovative market with many high-end companies, we are taking prompt action to secure and strategically expand our local presence there. By taking on many sales and service employees from our former trading partner, the same extensive knowledge and familiar local contacts will continue to be available to our customers in the future. Another reason for founding our own organisation is that we wish to provide our customers with even more support in their internationalisation process. This can only work smoothly, however, if we have our own location in Taiwan. Numerous Taiwanese Arburg customers are turning to the People's Republic of China, but also to Southeast Asia. And these important decisions are taken in Taiwanese company headquarters."
Arburg - already present in Taiwan's special markets
There are a great many specialist high-end companies in Taiwan, which have already been using Arburg's plastics technology for a long time. For example, many Allrounders are used not only in medical technology and electronics production, but also in the processing of metal and ceramic powders (MIM, CIM) and liquid silicone (LSR). Opening our own subsidiary brings Taiwanese customers interesting advantages, as highlighted by Andrea Carta: "With our technology, our applications and our turnkey solutions, we want to continue growing not just in specialist areas, but also in standard fields such as thermoplastic processing, for example. So not only will we take over the infrastructure in Taiwan, we will undertake a targeted expansion by broadening our service offering, for instance, and with application technology consulting. To achieve this, we will work closely together with the experts at the company headquarters."
Expert as subsidiary manager in Taiwan
In Michael Huang, Arburg was able to acquire an experienced plastics specialist as subsidiary manager. For several months, he went through intensive preparation for his work at the German headquarters in Lossburg. Previously, he worked in management and sales at materials manufacturer GE Plastics and Sabic, and consequently he knows the industry extremely well and has first-class contacts. The subsidiary manager has this to say about the Taiwan location: "Strategically, Taichung is the best choice. With over 2.6 million inhabitants, it is the third largest city in the country after Taipeh and Kaohsiung, and is situated in an important and strongly growing industrial region of this island. Many of our customers are also active there." The new subsidiary's premises cover an area of around 550 square metres. The showroom offers space for three Allrounders, and is complemented by training rooms and an extensive spare parts store. "We greatly value comprehensive application technology consulting and a broad service offering. At our premises, our customers can run tests and configure sample moulds, but they can also benefit from in-depth application technology consulting and receive training on all aspects of Arburg technology," says Michael Huang, describing the offerings.
C&F continues looking after key accounts
Our cooperation with C&F will initially continue. For example, as well as selling the necessary peripheral processing equipment, our former trading partner will also continue to take care of some key accounts from the injection moulding field. However, the new Arburg subsidiary will completely take over the work of the after-sales service. This will ensure continuity in support for the Taiwanese market in every respect. And this is an important aspect, as Andrea Carta emphasises: "We have had a very good, trusting partnership with our trading partner C&F since 1981. We are extremely grateful for the work they have done. However, both managing directors wish to retire in the medium term. Therefore, by planning this transition with a view to the long term, we wish to expand our own capacities in the country, so that we can also continue to provide our customers with perfect support in future."
