TRADE AND MARKET I NG to cropping areas are not yet ur growth opportunity lies’ I t’s early December. For just under a week, the entire premises of the worldfamous manufacturer of machinery – and especially potato technology – has been renamed Grimme Technica. Under this heading, the family business opens the doors of its showroom and factory halls for business relations and customers from all over the world this year for the 7th time. This trade fair event is accompanied by snacks and drinks, a hearty lunch, guided tours of the factory, a show spectacle around the latest machines and, that’s what it’s all about, networking moments. Christoph Grimme is ready and waiting in the early hours of the morning. Seated on a bar stool and nonchalantly leaning on a high table in the middle of the showroom of the Grimme Technicom, he and a few colleagues from the management team take a relaxed look at the latest state of the family business before the first busloads of guests from all over the world stream into the Grimme Technicom. ‘You’re here for the interview, I’m all ready for it’, he says visibly delighted at our arrival. ‘Half an hour? Oh, never mind, let’s see how long it takes’, he adds with a broad smile at the doubtful look of the journalist. Sources of inspiration Steve Jobs (Apple) and Elon Musk (Tesla) are his idols, while the bestseller Silicon Germany by writer and namesake Christoph Keese as ‘a source of inspiration’ can be noted from an earlier interview with Christoph Grimme. It soon becomes clear in this interview why. His first interest in everything to do with ing country for us as far as manufacturing potato harvesters is concerned. Here, no less than 5 million hectares of potatoes are grown; there is no other country with such a big cropping area. There’s still a lot of manual labour in the growing of potatoes and that offers opportuthe trading systems and the language’, says Grimme. That’s easier said than done, he says in all honesty. The construction of the modern factory in the city of Tianjin, 140 kilometres south of Beijing, whose production halls cover an area of 12,500 square metres and the computers, software and digitisation was already aroused during his bachelor’s degree in engineering and then during five years of employment with the German agricultural machinery manufacturer Claas, from Harsewinkel. ‘I learned a lot here and gained practical experience in this area.’ In that period, it was already clear that, in time, he wanted to follow in the footsteps of his ancestors. In order to be able to take on a part or the whole leadership of a global group, further study was first advisable. He chose International Business Engineering at the University of Hamburg and obtained his Master’s degree in 2015. ‘It’s a special study programme for everyone who comes from the world of engineering to prepare for international business.’ The China Project On 1 January 2016, the newly-graduated Grimme junior could immediately start work when he was given the lead of ‘The China Project’, as he puts it himself. ‘China is a very interesting and promisnities for mechanisation. Moreover, the crop receives a lot of strong political support. The government wants to upgrade the potato to the fourth most important food in the country. We could, of course, export our machinery from Damme and we’ve done that for many years. As the Grimme group, we’ve been active in China for more than twenty years. We’ve also had an office there for years from where we distributed our machinery. But it’s no longer economical to export machinery to a country, it’s much cheaper to manufacture them there. Moreover, doing business in China is very different from what we’re used to here in Europe. For example, you don’t have any explicit fans of the green, blue or the red brand, as we know it here. The colour, the brand, that doesn’t interest the Chinese. Their choice is based on what’s good and afFordable, and available at the nearest dealer. That means that you have to build a relationship with the local trade and that, in turn, requires your presence in the country itself, with the necessary knowledge of ‘You can regard Schmiede.one as the Grimme innovation brain in the digital field.’ Potato World 2019 • number 1 5 Pagina 4

Pagina 6

Voor folders, online onderzoeksrapporten en mailings zie het Online Touch online publisher CMS systeem. Met de mogelijkheid voor een webwinkel in uw kranten.

Potatoworld 2019/1 Lees publicatie 51Home


You need flash player to view this online publication