Since its establishment in 1999, the Netherlands-based catalogue goods supplier SupportPlus Group has achieved double- and even triple-digit growth.

And in less than 10 years, it has become a large company with turnover reaching around 300 million euros (US$381 million) in 2006.

SupportPlus, which won the Cathay Pacific Trader Award last year, has set for itself an ambitious short-term goal, which is to boost its turnover to 1 billion euros (US$1.27 billion) by 2009. Its track record provides a very bullish prospect of reaching that objective.

SupportPlus Managing Director Jan Kemeling and Director of Sales Maarten Bouwmeester share the secrets of success of the company, which specializes in the design, marketing, development and distribution of products sourced from China for chain retail outlets in developed markets.

Bouwmeester said SupportPlus' basic business model is that it sources home appliances, consumer electronics, sport and fitness products, and Do-It-Yourself products from the major trade shows in China. And then it sells these products to major retailers in the countries where they do business in order to generate huge order volumes.

All the customers are basically chain stores with hundreds or often even thousands of stores per country.

These are predominantly large, one-off deliveries to major retailers for their large catalogue sales promotions. SupportPlus' products are "fast-moving items" known for their excellent price-performance ratio, according to Bouwmeester.

Bouwmeester said his company's headquarters are based in Enschede, in the Netherlands on the Dutch-German border. This site is home to a large distribution centre, the logistical heart of the group, as well as the company head office from where the group's strategy and finances are controlled. The European offices focus on sales, service and marketing.

Shanghai serves as the group's sourcing and product development base. Approximately 75 industrial designers, graphic designers, engineers, translators, editors, photographers, product managers, buyers, logistic managers and quality control managers are based there.

The group has sales offices in the Netherlands, Germany, Britain, France, Spain, Italy, Denmark, Austria, Australia, Shanghai and Hong Kong, Bouwmeester said. "We will soon open a sales office in Dubai and another one is expected to be launched in Canada by the end of this year."

When talking about the group's operations with China, Managing Director Jan Kemeling said, "I arrived in China in 2003. I arrived by myself with my bags and 15 years of experience working in Asia. I started the office from the ground up. I rented the office, got the licenses, and hired staff. Now after three years, we've got a staff of approximately 80 in Shanghai (22 expatriates from 11 different nations), a new engineering office in Shenzhen with 10 qualified engineers and a sales office in Hong Kong with eight sales and marketing staff."

Kemeling said China is the centre of gravity for SupportPlus. "We do all product development and decision-making and the designing of products and packaging in China. We manage the quality and technical input from China. We write and translate all packaging and manuals in China and we control all shipments from China. The production of everything in China is much cheaper, which improves our bottom line."

"Transferring all decision-making on day-to-day operations to managers in China gives us our competitive edge," Kemeling said. Because there is no need to send product samples to Europe for approval, the company saves an incredible amount of time and money on courier costs and duties. The company eliminates the possibility of errors in communication between offices. This also saves time and money and thus increases delivery speed. There are no delays in processing orders and customers enjoy incredibly fast time-to-market.

"When our competitors receive samples at their European headquarters from a Chinese factory, we have already received, tested and modified the products, designed the box and placed the order. That's what makes the difference," Kemeling said.

When asked what product lines are particularly popular for SupportPlus at the moment, Kemeling referred to MP3 players and navigation systems.

"At the beginning of 2005, we started selling MP3 players. Now, we are one of the leading distributors in Europe. It is difficult to sustain production levels to meet the high demand for MP3s there," Kemeling said.

"We are most excited about the potential of our GPS navigation devices. Right now, portable and automobile navigation devices have only 10 per cent market penetration in Europe and even less in North America at approximately 5 per cent."

Kemeling stressed that SupportPlus' niche or specialization is being the first-to-market after it spots a new trend in electronics. "We place a premium on speed. We don't take weeks to consult or revisit a decision because we know that time is money and our advantage is to be first," Kemeling said.

Towards the end of the year, SupportPlus will come out with its next big thing, something that does not yet exist and that will create a major change to the market the company is in. "So we start creating trends in addition to following trends quickly," Kemeling said.

For detailed information, please visit www.supportplus.cn

(China Daily 10/21/2006 page14)