No longer poles apart as ties increase

A Chinese machinery giant's efforts in Poland are paying off despite challenges

In Stalowa Wola, a town with a population of about 65,000 in southeastern Poland, a Chinese company made its presence known with a takeover of a traditional local machinery company that connected two different cultures and markets.

Guangxi Liugong Machinery Co Ltd's assembly line in Liuzhou, Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region. The company's acquisitions in Stalowa Wola, Poland, are expanding its capabilities into the European market. Wang Zhongbin / Xinhua

Many Chinese companies have gone global in recent years but success can never be achieved easily.

Chinese engineers and management officials from Guangxi Liugong Machinery Co Ltd, one of the leading construction equipment manufacturing companies in China, spent three to four hours by car to reach this small town, which is located about 240 kilometers south of the country's capital Warsaw, following a more than nine-hour flight from China.

"Many entrepreneurs still hold a superficial understanding of 'internationalization' on the trading stage. However, trading is like floating duckweed on water without roots while marketing is different," said Zeng Guang'an, Liugong's vice-chairman and president.

"Marketing is like planting trees. After you plant a young tree in a local market, you need to take care of it until it grows bigger."

"One tree is not enough. We raise a forest," he said.

Leading the whole process of Liugong's takeover of Huta Stalowa Wola Construction Equipment Division and its distribution subsidiary Dressta Co in Stalowa Wola, Zeng completed his planting of the first tree in Europe.

It took more than two years of negotiations. Liugong acquired the Construction Equipment Division of HSW and Dressta in February 2012, a time when many European companies were suffering from a weak economy.

The acquisition became Liugong's first outright purchase of manufacturing facilities and distribution outside its domestic market.