Trumpler open mainland facility

The new premises of Trumpler Chemicals and Dyes (Jiaxing) Co Ltd, more simply known as TCD, were officially opened in Weitang in Jiaxing province on September 4, two days before the industry gathered in Shanghai for the ACLE. Initially Trumpler served the mainland through Hong Kong, but in 2002 it was decided that the time was right for them to make a major investment in production closer to their customer base. The new facilities are a joint venture between Trumpler Germany and Trumpler Spain. Once the choice of site had been made and all the permits put in place, the foundation stone was laid on July 23, 2004. It only took eight months to build the factory, offices and laboratories and production actually began in April this year. Dr Thomas Feigel, chairman of the TCD board, described the foundation of this twelfth daughter company as an important step for a continuous successful development of the Trumpler group in the future. He said Trumpler had been active in China for thirty years with substantial business developed through Trumpler Asia, Hong Kong, with Thomas Lui and his team and via very active and competent agents such as Sam Chou and his entire team. He also gave credit to former Trumpler International managing director, Norbert Schuster, who attended the ceremony. Schuster retired at the end of 2004 but according to Feigel, without his initiative the project would not have advanced to this point today. Now, in addition to the Weitang base, the group have also founded a trading company, Trumpler International Trading (Shanghai) Co Ltd in the free trade zone of Waigoaqiao to allow the necessary flexibility to import and export chemicals. TCD will manufacture selected products for the Chinese market from their four product groups: beamhouse; fatliquors; syntans; dyestuffs. Peter Wohlmuth, general manager of TCD, said Jiaxing provided a very good environment and location close to some very big tanneries. Trumpler have invested in a factory which is able to assure the quality and consistency of all products due to the most modern production facilities. With their laboratory scale tannery they are able to give technical service to their customers and provide training for both customers and dealers. Also at the ceremony, Joan Barenys, general manager of Trumpler Spain, said that they received their invitation to join the project from Schuster and Christian Roos in May 2003. He and Pilar Gil then travelled around China with the assistance of Sam Chou and Thomas Lui, visiting Hebei, Henan, Shandong, Zhejiang, Whenzou and Guangdong, meeting many agents, sub agents and customers. Choosing Weitang as the right place, building the factory, mounting all the equipment, building up the 'human team' and starting the TCD operation, was all done in 18 months. He concluded that they were now facing the last and most important step of the project, that of starting the business, building up business from Trumpler China, from TCD; 'I'm sure we have all the tools in our hands.'