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Swiss
Centers Newsletter December 2021
Dear Swiss Centers Members, Partners and Friends,
Our 2021 has been filled with exciting and new activities:
we set up a Swiss Store in the CIIE Bazaar at East Nanjing Road in
downtown Shanghai; we organized the Swiss Centers
Booth at the 4th CIIE (China International Import Expo), with a
largest booth and a record size of participating companies; we signed
an agreement with Swiss Wine Promotion to
officially promote Swiss wine in China; we launched 2 brands (Morand
and Kübler) in the Chinese market by representing Distillerie Louis
Morand & Cie SA and Blackmint SA.
While these new activities are tailored to serve the
consumer goods companies, the Swiss Centers continue to support the
industrial and technology companies in doing business with China. With
the pandemic continue threatening our health and restraining business
trips, the Swiss Centers’ practical and customized solutions, ranging
from employee hosting to local representation, from trade agency to
supply chain management, are more than helpful and are appreciated by
our existing and newly joined members.
Hereby we would also like to express our
sincere gratitude to the trust and support of Ceramaret, Digisens, Dixi Polytool & Ventura Mecanics, Sonceboz and Fraisa for
renewing their membership! We would also like to welcome our new
member companies Pfiffner Witzig & Frank and Distillerie Louis
Morand to join the Swiss Centers family!
Swiss Centers will continue to provide the practical
quality services, to adapt to the changing environment, to meet the
challenges and help the Swiss companies to develop their business with
China. We thank sincerely all our customers and partners for the collaboration
throughout the year, and we wish you and your family a happy festival
season, and a prosperous and healthy new year of 2022!
Zhen XIAO
CEO
Swiss Centers
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Contents
§
New Members
§
Renewed Members
§ Human
Resources
§ Events
and Activities in Switzerland
§ Events and
Activities in China
§ Collaborations
and Partnerships
§ Follow Us
§
Season’s Greetings
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New Members
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Pfiffner Witzig
& Frank is a
long-established, internationally high-performing manufacturer of
custom machines. They use standard assemblies to configure custom
machine concepts that meet the most stringent requirements relating to
quality, productivity, flexibility, and availability. They offer their
customers a huge amount of know-how and all-round customer care – from
the initial idea to the development and realization of complete turnkey
projects. Their range of machines focus on the cutting and chipless
shaping of mostly cubic workpieces at high production volumes (medium
and large series production) for the highest quality requirements.
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Distillerie Louis
Morand is a
family business established in Martigny where four generations have
succeeded each other since 1889. They are renowned for their
excellent spirits and syrups, including the
famous Williamine®, eaux-de-vie and liqueurs.
Their exceptional
quality comes from the Williams pears and the Luizet apricots ripened
in Valais, in the heart of the Alps. All their Williams pears are
hand-picked and then hand sorted. The unmistakable flavor comes
from nature - for producing only one bottle of Williamine they use 12kg
of Williams pears.
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Renewed
Members
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Ceramaret designs and
manufactures components from ultra-hard materials such as advanced
ceramics (zirconia, alumina) and synthetic sapphire and ruby.
Founded during the industrialization of the watchmaking sector,
Ceramaret has been successful in opening itself up to new technology
thanks to a visionary development. For over a century, Ceramaret has
dedicated itself to manufacturing and polishing parts in hard
materials.
Ceramaret
enables clients and partners to benefit from its decades of
experience in the shaping and machining of advanced ceramics and hard
materials. They are committed to providing smart, sensible, and
innovative solutions.
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DIGI SENS has been developing products for digital weighing in
various applications for more than 25 years. In the following areas
DIGI SENS offers its customers innovative solutions and has become
the market leader in the past decades:
- Inventory measurement for automatic procurement
with i.cupboard and e-nventory®
- Dynamic weighing on refuse trucks
- OEM components for weight measurement in elevators
- WIM (Weighing in Motion)
DIGI SENS has a holding structure with production
facilities in Switzerland and Slovakia and a worldwide
customer-oriented sales.
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Dixi Polytool is specialized in the production of tungsten carbide and
diamond cutting tools as well as precision reamers. The company is based
in Le Locle since 1946. In 2014, the premises have been
completely renovated and enlarged.
Eager
to guarantee the quality of its products while preserving the
environment, DIXI Polytool S.A. elaborated a system of certified
management according to the standards ISO 9001:2008 and ISO
14001:2004.
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Ventura Mecanics has represented precision, quality, and longevity to a
broad, world-renowned clientele for decades.
It was
founded as a small Swiss business with 20 people in 1983 and now
becomes one of the leaders in the sales and reconditioning of
automatic and CNC lathes for machining parts measuring between 0.15
and 9.00mm from coil stock.
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Sonceboz a Swiss technology company and a leader in flow control
and mechatronic drive solutions designed to operate in harsh
environments.
From
mind to motion, from idea to movement, their aim is to create
innovative, reliable, safe and environmentally friendly mechatronic
systems.
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FRAISA offers a comprehensive range of metal cutting tools:
milling tools, drills, taps, indexable inserts and many more. FRAISA
products are characterized by high performance, precision and quality
– at an excellent price/performance ratio.
With
various performance classes, FRAISA’s product range also covers the
individual wishes of customers: from the inexpensive yet technically
perfect product line through to our FRAISA X-Generation for the
utmost performance and precision.
Furthermore, FRAISA ensures the sustainable market
success and the long-term competitiveness of customers with a
distinct range of services on offer: personal and competent expert
consultancy, process engineering, special customized equipment
according to the customers’ wishes, profitability calculations and a
range of service tools are all integral to what FRAISA has to offer.
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Human Resources
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Having served in
Shanghai as the Deputy General Manager for two and a half years, Kuno
Gschwend has acquired hands-on experience managing operations and
business projects in the challenging environment. We are very happy and
confident of having Kuno as our GM, leading the 30-people team in China
to provide customized solutions and services with the Swiss quality.
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General Manager
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Mr. Kuno Gschwend
E: kuno.gschwend@swisscenters.org
T: +86 21 2076 5613
We would also like to announce our
newly joined colleague in the Swiss office, Mr. Romain Barrabas, since
April 2021. Romain takes care of customer relations and business
development in Switzerland. With a solid education background and rich
experience in China, he understands well the China’s environment, also
the Swiss company’s needs and concerns. Were there any questions or
interest on doing business with China, Romain would be your first
contact point in Switzerland.
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Graduating in 2013 with a Multidisciplinary Master in
Asian Studies (University of Geneva, Graduate Institute Geneva),
Romain is currently based in Switzerland and works as a Customer
Relations Executive in Swiss Centers.
He spent most of the last decade in China: first in
Nanjing to perfect his Mandarin and then in Shanghai in event
management and communication for the watch manufacturer Breguet. He
then spent more than 6 years in Beijing, at the Swiss Chamber of
Commerce (SwissCham Beijing) as Marketing & Events Manager and
then General Manager. He was then employed by the Embassy of
Switzerland as Deputy Head of the Culture & Media Section.
Finally, he chaired the Swiss School of Beijing for more than 3 years
where he still served as a member of the Board of Directors. In
Switzerland, he has held positions in communication and sales for the
watch brands Baume & Mercier and Girard-Perregaux.
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Customer
Relations Executive
Mr. Romain
Barrabas
E: romain.barrabas@swisscenters.org
M: +41 78 219 4147
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Events and Activities in Switzerland
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Our
annual Swiss Business Confidence Survey in China highlights that the lack
of understanding from the headquarter has been ranked among the
top 3 internal challenges that Swiss subsidiaries in China face.
This
reality is even more prevalent since international travel and
exchanges have been disrupted by the pandemic. At the same time,
while China remains an extremely attractive and important market
for many companies, developing business there is increasingly complex
and less than straight-forward.
For
these reasons, the Swiss Centers and the St. Gallen Research Institute
for International Management (FIM-HSG), in partnership with the Chambre
neuchâteloise du commerce et de l'industrie (CNCI), the Geneva Chamber
of Commerce, Industry and Services (CCIG), the Swiss Chinese Chamber of
Commerce (SCCC), the Section romande de la Société Suisse-Chine (SRSSC)
and Microcity, join forces this year again to offer a
one-and-a-half-day workshop dedicated to the Swiss companies having
or planning to set up a business in China, and who wish to improve
cross-border management methods between Switzerland and China.
Read more and
RSVP
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Events
and Activities in China
The Swiss Centers,
with the support of the Swiss Chinese Chamber of Commerce in Zurich
(SCCC) and SwissCham chapters in Beijing and Shanghai, successfully
organized a Swiss Pavilion – Swiss Centers Cluster Booth –
at the 4th China International Import Expo (CIIE) in Shanghai from 5 to
10 November, 2021. This year with the largest-ever Food and
Agricultural Products Pavilion, with a total area of 234sqm and 26 exhibitors and 35 Swiss brands, we took advantage of this
trade platform and opportunity to enable more Swiss companies to better
communicate with Chinese customers and to interact with their potential
clients.
We are very grateful for
the support from all the partners, which made the Swiss Cluster Booth
and the different projects around the CIIE possible.
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A Corner of Swiss Centers Cluster Booth
Apart from our old friends from previous editions, we had
12 newcomers this year. Their products range from handmade luxury chocolates,
cacao powder to absinthe, brandy, and wine in exclusive varieties.
Photos Gallery of Swiss Centers Cluster Booth at the 4th CIIE
This was the third consecutive year that Swiss Centers
have participated in the CIIE (Xinhua
News report). Through this
platform newcomers could get a feeling of the market, direct contacts
with Chinese consumers, and lots of media attention. Because of good
long-term relationships between the Swiss Centers and media channels,
the newcomers, for example Morand, got media exposure in the CIIE promotion
ads (CCTV
2) and post-CIIE online
interview (CCTV 13); Yves Kübler, the owner of Kübler, was invited to have a special
interview with Xinhua News.
Morand in a CIIE Promotion Ads on CCTV
2
Swiss Centers were actively facilitating media exposure,
government contacts and, with the help of partners such as CieCAS and EHL, presented the food and beverages brands through cooking
shows and drink mixing.
We were also honored to co-organize the Sino-Swiss
Business Reception with the Consulate General of Switzerland in
Shanghai on November 5th, 2021. The guest of honor, Ambassador
Bernardino Regazzoni, together with more than 200 guests celebrated
the Swiss presence at the CIIE and enjoyed an evening among the
Sino-Swiss business community.
Photo
Gallery of Sino-Swiss
Business Reception
To help Swiss SMEs from the Consumer Goods industry, Swiss
Centers set up a Swiss themed store at East Nanjing Road in downtown
Shanghai. Such opportunities should help raising the brand awareness, help
collecting customer feedback and of course generating sales.
Photo
Gallery of Opening
Ceremony of Best-selling CIIE Products Fair, Swiss Store in CIIE
Bazaar at East Nanjing Road
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Collaborations and
Partnerships
On October 1, 2021,
Swiss Centers and Swiss
Wine Promotion signed a partnership agreement with the goal of promoting Swiss wines in the Chinese market.
The debut show of Swiss Wine Promotion at CIIE was very meaningful and
the feedback from the visitors was satisfying. We conducted an on-site
survey and could collect valuable inputs from consumers. During the
exhibition, Swiss Centers were invited to promote the brand of Swiss
Wine Promotion and its unique products on the Live-Streaming
platform of Shanghai
Radio.
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Swiss Wine Promotion Corner of Swiss Centers Cluster Booth
In 2021, the Swiss
Centers have actively continued to build links with economic
organizations and those creating bridges between China and Switzerland.
The goal is simple: make c-level executives aware of who we are and
what we have been doing for more than two decades, i.e., concretely
supporting Swiss companies in the development of their business in
China. We have continued to maintain regular exchanges and
collaborations with S-GE, of which we are one of the experts for China,
with Microcity, through a partnership signed last year, as well as with
the Swiss-Chinese
Chamber of Commerce
(SCCC) and the French-speaking section
of the Swiss-Chinese Society
(SRSSC), of which we are members. At the same time, and in order to
address Swiss companies more directly, we have established or
re-established contacts with several chambers of commerce and have more
specifically decided to become a member of the Neuchâtel
Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CNCI) as well as of the Geneva
Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Services (CCIG).
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Season’s Greetings
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© SWISS CENTERS CHINA
2021
The Swiss Centers are
invested and developed by Foundation Swiss Centers, a non-profit foundation
registered in Neuchâtel, Switzerland.
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IN CHINA
A301, BLDG 3, 526
FUTE NO.3 RD
200131 PUDONG
SHANGHAI PILOT FREE
TRADE ZONE
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IN SWITZERLAND
AVENUE DE
CHAMPS-MONTANTS 12B
2074 MARIN
NEUCHATEL
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www.swisscenters.org | admin@swisscenters.org
Call us: +86 21 2076
5593
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