The main executives of Roca, Alsa and Simon Hold/olding participated in a colloquium on Asia
Large Spanish companies with a long-standing presence in Asia prefer China to India for doing business, and intend to continue expanding their activity in the former, while they view the latter as more reluctant, especially from a cultural or even religious point of view.
The main executives of Roca, Alsa and Simon Hold/olding participated today in a colloquium on Asia within the tenth National Congress of Family Businesses, which is being held until tomorrow in Palma and has the participation of 620 representatives from some 450 Spanish companies.
"The Chinese have the dollar sign in their eyes," says Xavier Torra, general manager of the Catalan electrical equipment company Simon Hold/olding, a company that has been in China for more than ten years.
For Torras, the Chinese desire to grow and make money surpasses that of the Indians, for whom other factors, such as religion, carry more weight.
Jorge Cosmen, president of Alsa-Madrid and a member of the Board of Directors of National Express, shares this opinion. His company has been operating in China for almost twenty years and already has countless bus routes connecting different cities across the country.
According to Cosmen, Alsa's interest remains in China as long as there is more business opportunity, which there is, because a giant like that will need more and more transport lines.
This company has also changed the mindset of Chinese travelers. It was the first to establish routes with fixed schedules, in a country where a bus wouldn't leave until it was full, and it was also a pioneer in selling round-trip tickets.
Alsa is probably the Spanish company with the longest tradition in that country, where the sanitary ware company Roca also has a significant presence.
Its president, Javier Roca Hernández, recalled that Roca is already a multinational with factories in 17 countries and a commercial presence in eight others, and that it now only has 42 percent of its turnover in Spain.
The Chinese market is more than attractive for this company: 1.300 billion inhabitants who consume 40 million sanitary pieces per year, a high figure that is nevertheless far from the US percentage, with the same number of pieces for 300 million.
What it's about is "potential," and an economy that, the more it grows, the more it will consume, he pointed out.
Roca is also entering India, although this time it has changed its approach and has a local partner, due to the complexity of that market, while in most other countries, including China, it has established its business alone.
According to the president of this company, labor relations in India are also more complex, a country with strong unions that always view foreign companies "worse" than national ones.
But one of the main obstacles to overcome in both countries is access itself. There, "know-how" (knowing how to invest and implement the business) is not as important as "know-who" (having the right contacts), something that, in the case of China, is practically essential according to Xavier Torra.
Simon Hold/olding has always preferred to have local partners in China, while Roca goes it alone and Alsa partners with different companies depending on the provinces in which it has transport lines.
At this Family Business Congress, Jorge Cosmen gave a good example of the division of tasks among family members: one of his brothers left his Economics degree twenty years ago to start the company's business in that country, and he continues to expand its activity there.
The three businessmen agreed on the good information provided by Spanish public bodies, such as ICEX, to encourage investment in Asia, about which, as Torra stressed, one must be well informed before acting.
There will always be obstacles, such as the lack of a distribution network, which Roca solved by creating its own in China, or the cultural differences that always generate mistrust and lengthen negotiations, which are "endless" with the Chinese according to Cosmen.
In any case, these three companies will continue to expand their business in Asia with a direct presence that denotes internationalization and is not, in any case, a resort to offshoring: they all maintain a good part of their activity in Spain.
Any questions about this news?
Talk to Coexia, the AI of the foreign trade
International business service providers
Moldtrans
Grupo Moldtrans is a comprehensive logistics operator with extensive experience in land, air and sea transport.read more...
FedEx Express
FedEx Express is the world's largest express transportation company. It offers a shipping service.read more...
AROLA
AROLA, through its various business areas, offers a comprehensive and customized logistics service.read more...
Pantoja Logistics Group
Pantoja Grupo Logístico is a 360° operator with 100% Spanish capital and family origins.read more...
DHL Express
DHL is the world leader in the logistics sector. DHL's divisions offer a portfolio of...read more...