25 Jul 2008
Growing with speed
In competitive business environments like China, time waits for no man, but Allen Wong, market region manager for China, works to keep ASSA ABLOY on track.
ASSA ABLOY’s priorities in China are growth and increasing its market share. The Group owns several manufacturing sites in China, the largest being Guli Security Products. Today the products from this site are mainly for export to other Group companies.
“Now we really need to build our business outside the Group. We have the expertise and high quality products. Now is the time to grow in China and all Chinese Group companies Guli, Baodean and ASSA ABLOY-Wangli will all play an important role,” Allen Wong says.
The idea of growth in the domestic market is also being reflected in the acquisition strategy.
“We acquire new companies mainly to increase our market share, not to get more production capacity, we already have that,” he explains. Allen Wong continues by explaining that culture is important when acquiring a new company and he believes the ASSA ABLOY way of respecting the company culture and people is fairly unique for a western company in China.
On the other hand Allen Wong stresses the importance of organic growth, and of creating growth in the existing companies. A large part of the Chinese population will move into cities in the coming years, and this will increase the rate of building construction. Not only the number residences but also, and perhaps more importantly, the commercial sector, including shopping malls, banks and office complexes.
“Right now we are putting a lot of effort into the commercial business segment and we grew our sales by 30 percent in that segment last year. We will continue to drive ourselves hard to capture this market and become more advanced in our product offer,” Allen Wong says.