The most important thing for the success of the subsidiary was to get access to customers and expand the network. To do this, Sandra Lutz and her team adopted a split approach. Existing contacts to global key accounts in the region such as Monsanto, Syngenta, and BASF were cultivated, while the good relationships with Chinese regular customers were also nurtured. The team made new customers aware of the specialized solutions from WINTERSTEIGER. This ever-growing "guănxī" has helped China to become one of Seedmech's most important markets. The original contact with the state agency CAAMS with Ms. Qi as the contact person was not neglected either: Ms. Qi had already been ordering machines from WINTERSTEIGER for many years.

Alongside Sandra Lutz, her Ried colleagues Hans Schwarzmayr as Area Sales Manager and Frank Farkas as Service Technician were among the key players in the start-up phase. Frank Farkas was extremely popular with customers: he had products specially adapted for China and, during many training courses, convinced the customers of the right way to use them and even the right time to start the harvest!

The decision to establish a subsidiary in China came at exactly the right time–before our competitors could gain a foothold. The feeling for the culture and the great commitment of our colleagues made the founding of this subsidiary a great success.