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SGS consolidates position in Hong Kong
Headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, SGS is one of the world's leading providers of testing, certification, inspection and verification services. It has more than 40,000 employees in some 1,000 offices in 140 countries. SGS Hong Kong Ltd was established in 1959 and is a key international hub for consumer goods testing for the group. It employs over 830 people of many different disciplines in its two premises in Sha Tin and Quarry Bay. InvestHK met with Fabrice Egloff, Executive Director and Amos Lau, Business Development Manager, to learn more about this long serving Hong Kong firm's success in the city and plans to develop its operations from a Hong Kong base.
Clients and services?
"Our clients, who include commercial enterprises, governments and international institutions, engage SGS because they trust in our service excellence and value our third party independence. We are involved at many stages of the business cycle. For example, helping with new product development to ensure compliance with the rules of the jurisdiction of sales; doing pre-export tests at manufacturing plants to ensure production meets the specification of the goods purchased; and certifying systems for meeting ISO and other international standards. Clients are often international and require us to execute services in the countries where their goods are produced." |
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Mr Fabrice Egloff, Executive Director of SGS HK Ltd. | |
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Why Hong Kong?
"Hong Kong meets our needs perfectly. MNCs are often in Hong Kong and confidently engage our services in the city, in the trusted and sophisticated business environment. Given Hong Kong's central location, their production facilities are usually close by, even just over the border in the Pearl River Delta. This works for SGS too; we can easily meet clients' needs through our network of testing facilities. For example we have more than 3,000 staff at over 24 branches and 20 laboratories in the Mainland, and an SGS network throughout Asia. The Hong Kong office, and the lab facilities in particular, is a centre and showroom of service excellence for high end new product development and testing methods; and research and development creating know-how that is then replicated in the Mainland and overseas. Hong Kong also contains our sales and marketing functions. Hong Kong's accessibility and status as a business centre makes it a logical place for these functions. SGS serves many local clients including on publicly sensitive issues such as testing imported foods and domestic environmental issues such as monitoring water, soil and air."
Priorities and challenges
"Our key priority is to retain talent locally. We engage people from a range of disciplines and SGS apply a lot of effort to manage these people and keep them in the group. Having focused Hong Kong on the high end testing and R&D aspects of our consumer business as well as sales and marketing support, the integration of this work with our labour intensive work on the Mainland is critical for our success. This model, that leverages each regions' strengths, serves us well. But like any change it takes time for people to adjust. SGS are confident this model will provide the desired synergies. It reflects the macro picture that we and many others believe: Hong Kong and the Mainland do need each other and can work together in a successful and complementary way."
New developments
"In March 2005, we diversified into a new area by opening our "City Learning Centre" in Quarry Bay. There we will provide clients with training on SGS International standards and services for example on ISO 9001, ISO 14001, Social Accountability and occupational health and safety management as well as various management training skills. An increasingly important area for SGS is corporate social responsibility (CSR), a concept that we embrace as a group. It is also however, becoming the norm for our clients from Europe and the US in particular, to research and manage the ethical aspects of their operations and their impact on the social environment. Consumers are now demanding to know a company's codes of conduct for child and forced labour, working conditions and health and safety at work and more, so we are engaged to undertake audits and provide certification of compliance against these specified codes. Another new development is the extending of our new facility in Guangzhou. This plant will focus on the testing of electrical products eg white goods, IT and video products, as well as hard goods, such as furniture, auto parts, packaging and textile. This should serve our Hong Kong clients and their manufacturing in the PRD very well. In Hong Kong, we are also hoping to build our collaborations and network in the R&D function to facilitate ideas exchange. We already have a technical partnership with Hong Kong Polytechnic University and we want to develop relations with other centres."
Meeting expectations
"Hong Kong is so dynamic and international, it is the perfect location for developing new business, ideas and opportunities. Its central location in Asia and position as a gateway to the Mainland means that it is a natural place for all international players to converge. The city is also an easy place to do business. That is not to say you are not against tough competition! It is more the fact that all the necessary elements are here for your business to excel. SGS is very committed to further growth and development in Hong Kong, capitalising on the synergies of Hong Kong working together with the Mainland. In the Mainland, as well as Hong Kong, we feel we are in a strong position over our competitors, given the depth of our network and our years of experience. Our integrated business model is already working well, and we are committed to investing and reaping the benefits for years to come."
Top tips
"It is crucial for overseas companies to take time to understand the local culture. This includes the local people, work style, manner of dealing with external parties and more. Although Hong Kong is very international, this is still an issue that foreign enterprises should not overlook. In the Mainland, it is an even bigger factor. Make good use of the support and network of Government bodies like InvestHK. It is useful to have such enthusiastic and knowledgeable partners on stand by, to help as our business grows and develops."
http://www.hk.sgs.com/
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