China: an exciting market with many facets

The Chinese subsidiary of H2O, Kunshan water treatment equipment co., Ltd., was founded in 2015. The company entered the Chinese market with Uwe Hanschke as General Manager. Since then, Hanschke has been responsible for supporting existing customers and expanding the market. In the following interview, Uwe Hanschke talks about his experiences, his everyday life in China, and the biggest challenges he has faced since taking the job.

Uwe, as General Manager of H2O Kunshan you have already lived and worked in China for quite some time. How long have you been with H2O and how long have you lived ‘over there’?

I’ve been with H2O since July 2014. In the early days, I would spend a few weeks in China and then head back to Germany. At that time, our office in China hadn’t been set up yet. We had to do a lot of preparatory work. H2O Kunshan was founded in June 2015 and in August I moved to China permanently.

Was it a difficult decision for you to shift your place of residence from Germany to China?

No, not really. My wife and I had already given it a lot of thought, and it was clear to us from the beginning that we would move there.
Since many years I had the wish to get back out into the wide world, once the children had left home. And Asia was right on the top of the list. I had already spent four years in the Philippines some time ago, and besides, I’m married to an Asian woman. So it wasn’t a difficult decision.

How big was the transition to Chinese culture? Were there particular challenges you were faced with in the early months?

I think the main challenge is that no one here really speaks English. In Kunshan it’s especially difficult to communicate. The problem arises the minute you enter a shop to buy something. Every administrative task requires help, whether you’re ordering a telephone connection or renting an apartment.
You’re always dependent on having people nearby who can translate. You have to get used to the fact that there’s always someone mediating, and you don’t know if information might be getting lost in the process. Something can always get lost in translation. This is especially true of technical terms.

How would you describe your early days at H2O Kunshan? What form did market development take in the beginning?

2015 was definitely a good year. By the end, we had already sold a number of systems directly. This was partly certainly due to all the preparatory work we had done before. The customers had already heard of H2O, and the fact that we had established a local presence made a positive impression.
Our office is in Eco Park in Kunshan. We built our rooms there in the bare shell of a building. Right from the beginning we built everything by ourselves. Our workrooms, the laboratory, the workshop – everything came out really well. To be perfectly honest, I thought there would be more problems.
But we also received a huge amount of support from the headquarters in Steinen. We could feel the great enthusiasm, and this really helped us a lot here.

How exactly did the work in your office take shape, and how many employees currently work in Kunshan?

There are currently six people in our team. One of them is my assistant. She supports me, but she’s also responsible for most of the administrative work. Apart from her, there are two sales representatives, a service technician and my wife, who works part-time in the laboratory.
In the meantime we have the possibility to offer full service, start-ups and laboratory tests directly from China. But we don’t manufacture here yet, of course.
 

Why, in your opinion, is our VACUDEST so important for the Chinese market?

The VACUDEST makes it possible to comply with the extremely strict limits here in China.  There are regions where you can’t discharge any wastewater at all. So the only alternative is zero liquid discharge production.
Disposal costs are another important point. In China, they are really very high. I would say they’re almost five to ten times higher than in Germany. But that depends on the region, of course.
Consequently, a VACUDEST can save a whole lot of money. In most cases, the purchase pays for itself within less than a year.

Would you buy a VACUDEST system yourself?

To distil liquor? Yes! [laughing]
No, of course I would. Definitely.

Why?

I find it to be the most elegant method. The VACUDEST is fully automatic and produces no waste. I don’t think there’s a better technique out there. Granted, my background is in conventional wastewater treatment, and things work differently there.

The positive impression seems to be confirmed. We’ve become really successful in the meantime. What would you say was the most positive feedback you received from a customer after installing our VACUDEST?

I received a nice e-mail just a few days ago. The general manager wrote that he was very pleased with the system and its performance, and he thanked us for the very good service our team provided.
Quite nice, don’t you think?
It made the whole team happy, of course.

Was there a special moment you would describe as a milestone in building the subsidiary? 

That would be the first time we delivered a VACUDEST here at H2O Kunshan. We were celebrating the company’s 30th anniversary and the office was full of customers. I remember all of us were standing together around the system, touching it and marvelling at it.

What would you say is unique about the work at H2O, and especially H2O Kunshan? What is special about it for you?

What’s special? The fact that in principle I’m a Jack of all trades. [laughing] In Germany each department is responsible for a specific area. Here at our office, everything flows together.
For example, I buy the coffee to make sure the team is provided for. But I also play an active part in sales, and now and then I work in the lab.
And when I’m there alone at the weekend, I retighten the screws on the chairs so they don’t collapse under my employees.
I’m involved in every area, and I enjoy it. And I don’t feel alone here. I receive support from Germany whenever I need it.

Just one more question in closing: What are your career goals for 2017? What have you resolved to do with your team this year?

Our goal is to achieve another sharp increase in sales this year. Along the way, we’re hoping to win several new contracts that are currently in the works.
And we plan to recruit new employees who will be able to provide energetic support for our team here in Kunshan. We also attach great importance to fast and effective training.
Apart from that, we plan to implement and stabilise the ERP system that is already being used with success in Steinen here at our office. In doing so, we will be making a very important contribution to smooth cooperation with our headquarters in Germany.