"Moving to China is an investment for the future"

 Johnas Rundgren, with Scandic Sourcing's Fredrik Sundström and Linda Du outside Predire's new test center in Jiading in northern Shanghai.

Johnas Rundgren is a newly appointed General Manager for  Predire Testcenter in China. The mother company, Predire Group is a family owned company with about 100 employees which work with test simulations and quality control, mostly within the car industry for customers such as Volvo, Audi, BMW and Mercedes. This year, Predire decided to expand to China with the help of Scandic Sourcing.

 Why did you move to China?

Johnas Rundgren: There were two reasons; partly because of the proximity to Volvo who's got a big facility in Jiading. We are Volvos first hand choice regarding sub-suppliers; except them, we have some 30 other customers on site here in Shanghai. The other reason is that Shanghai is headed towards becoming the biggest center in the world for research and development for the car industry, and that's why moving here is important to ensure that we continue staying ahead for coming years; it is an investment for the future.

Why did you move this year?

Johnas Rundgren: We where actually about to move already last year, but then chose to invest in Germany insted. This year we applied for funding also from Swedfund, which gaves us an extra little push, needed for us to find the courage to actually move over to China.

How did you go about establishing yourselves in China?

Johnas Rundgren: We contacted the consulting firm Scandic Sourcing to help us establish a test center in Jiading in connection to Volvo's plant there, and they made an in-depth study to find a the best location and suitable venues for our testing plant. So when I stepped out of the plane, we could start immediately and visit interesting factory spaces around Shanghai. Scandic Sourcing also helps out with company registration, which has dramatically sped up the whole process of starting up in China.

Why did you choose Scandic Sourcing? 

Johnas Rundgren: We had some talks with their boss Per Linden and were quite impressed with how long they had been established in China, and also appreciated the fact that they were here, on site in Shanghai. Also, their employees had much experience doing business and establishing businesses here, which we took into consideration. 

What's been your experience this far?

Johnas Rundgren: I've only been here a short while, but already experienced a lot which differs dramatically in China compared to Europe. The market is dynamic, a bit "wild west" and there is a lot which differs with how we do business back in Sweden. Take negotiations, which take so much longer here in China, and all the bureaucracy is on a completely different level. Personally I like challenges, and there are so many things to learn here; like the business culture, customer needs, priorities, language, and last but not least, how to run a business here as a private entrepenur; it's so radically different from Europe, which makes it very exciting.

Johnas Rundgren inspects factory space.

What other advice to you have to businesses thinking about starting up in China?

Johnas Rundgren: You need to do your research, I read a great many articles and books and watched documentaries before coming here, it made me develop at least a first sense of how things work here in China, and that I think reduced the initial culture shock. I don't recommend coming here unprepared. Another good advice is to use the services of a well established consulting firm like Scandic Sourcing, and to ask a lot of questions – there are no stupid questions in China. What we take for granted in Europe is oftencase the complete opposite here, so ask questions and don't assume anything.