Staking reputation on quality

ESTABLISHED to manufacture vibratory separators in Taiwan in 1982 and expanding to metal detectors six years later, Guan Yu built its Foshan factory in Guangdong, China in 1992 to serve an expanding international market. General manager, Mr ChunXia Yan, explains how Guan Yu is coping as demand for food safety and inspection equipment continues to rise.

FPMJ: What features have made your products so competitive? What are new about your latest models?

Particularly in the food industry, our products can be good at grading, screening and filtering raw materials in the form of powder, granules and liquids. We have obtained patents in Taiwan and China for a range of characteristics, such as attractive exterior appearance, low energy consumption, easy installation, high efficiency, low noise and zero dust pollution, which make our products popular not only in China but also worldwide.

After four years of research and a year of testing, we recently launched a specially designed vibration separator that is now our best-selling machine. This success is owed to our strong R&D team in Taiwan and Foshan. It greatest feature is that it consumes about half of the electric energy of comparable models in the market. It is also more portable and easier to maintain, even as its processing efficiency can be increase by 20 per cent. Our customers have given good reviews to the high-tech product, which is widely used in to the food, pharmaceutical, biotechnology and other industries.

FPMJ: So, you agree that R&D is essential for a company’s growth?

Certainly. Our annual investment in R&D is 3% of our turnover. We also co-operate with scientific research units in leading institutions.

FPMJ: Has your company been affected by the financial crisis?

Fortunately, we have not been affected by the financial crisis. In spite the decline in the economic environment, we estimate our sales in 2010 will increase by 30% over the previous year. We have also maintained good co-operative relations with our customers over the long term and the orders have been relatively stable.

In fact, we have been experiencing product shortfall against demand for several years. To overcome this, our production plants were automated in 2010 to improve production efficiency, but we still difficult to fully meet the needs of all orders. So, we will open a new factory in Jiangsu province, which is expected to be on-stream in two years.

FPMJ: What factors are essential to establish your brand internationally?

I attribute our success in the international market to the emphasis on quality and reputable service. It is impossible to establish a brand without good quality; and if we cannot consistently maintain our high quality, then we cannot maintain our good reputation.

We entered the international market gradually, first by setting a solid foundation in the Asia market and then going into the Middle East market. In the food industry, our products are popular in Japan, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia and Viet Nam, followed by the Philippines, India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. We entered the Middle East market eight years ago, and now our business is excellent in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iran and the United Arab Emirates, where our customers are mainly in the bakery industry. After obtaining enough strength and experience in these two markets, we began to develop the European market.

In particular, the growth rate of the European market is gratifying for us, since our customers from UK, the Netherlands, Germany, Sweden, France, Turkey, and also Russia have strict standards. We carefully cultivated this market for seven years and it finally bore fruit two years ago with quite excellent perfShop Women's Boots