Foreign players in Shanghai recovering from COVID woes

Effective moves

According to Shi Hong, manager of the Enterprise Service Department of Xinzhuang Industrial Park, over 470 enterprises above the designated size, or companies with their sales income hitting at least 20 million yuan ($2.96 million), in the zone have fully resumed operations in June, of which foreign-funded enterprises account for 76 percent.

As of the end of the first half, 11 new foreign-funded firms have settled in the park, with a foreign investment of $44 million.

At Dohler, a German food and beverage ingredients supplier, production was never suspended during the latest wave, thanks to its permanent COVID-19 crisis team set up in 2020 that reacted in agile and decisive ways, as well as support from the park.

Having seen the cases rising sharply at the beginning of March, the company put the first level of its COVID-19 emergency plan in place with visitor restrictions and work-from-home policies for non-essential employees.

"It's most critical that we received pre-alerts from the park hours before the lockdown," said Roman Kupper, president of Dohler Asia-Pacific.

The alert enabled the company to bring in two full production shifts and a small R&D team on site, to operate seamlessly. After four weeks, difficulties emerged due to heavy restrictions on logistics from warehouses and customers across China.

"It's the second time we received special transportation passes to allow us to continue supplying raw materials to customers and avoid financial hardship, supported by the park."

Despite sales in the March-May period halved compared with the same period of last year, Kupper is confident that the company will close this year stronger than last year－a 30 percent increase or higher－as it has already exceeded the budget.

With economic activities recovering, Kupper said the priorities will be to help their customers get back on track by innovating product portfolios and optimizing current portfolios to stimulate growth.

An additional 40 employees in sales and R&D will be on board in the city during the second half.

"There's a huge gap separating the market and what we sell today: people and Shanghai are providing a great talent pool, along with the nimble and economy-friendly environment," Kupper added.