Q&A: What the year has in store

Kevin Rogers, CEO of Elanders Beijing Printing Co.

A1 My growth expectations in China in 2017 are for slow but steady growth. The major opportunities will come from the expanding middle classes, providing services to more international companies in China and offering global supply chain services to Chinese companies who export their goods. For example, the expanding middle class will drive demand for high-quality products from major brands and this requires high-quality packaging, which is an area of expertise at Elanders China. The challenges include the competitive nature of the domestic market where it seems that "best price wins" even if the higher price offers better value for money.

A2 Elanders have had innovation, green production and upgrade of manufacturing in our strategy for a long time. This aligns perfectly with China's 13th Five-Year Plan. We have introduced innovation in our business through online ordering (e-commerce), digital print production and 3D printing. We are focused on driving more automation and upgrade through investment in more automated processes and equipment. This will allow us to be more competitive as labor costs increase and also increase our capacity so we can produce and process more orders with the same number of people.

A3 My expectation for revenue and profit will be a slow but steady improvement. I expect to see increased demand for quality products and better customer service. The higher quality will commend a slightly higher price and customers will want to receive a professional and reliable service from their partners. The expanding middle class will drive more demand for quality goods and I expect this to positively influence revenue at Elanders.

A4 This will allow us to export more to the US and this is one of our target areas for our "European Quality Made in China" packaging service. We are targeting major brands in the US to produce high-quality packaging in China and export back to the US, this can be a better-value option for US businesses than some US-based packaging manufacturing. The more flexible renminbi does make it more expensive for US brands to export their products to China, this may limit our growth for providing supply chain services to US companies who want to sell their products in China.

A5 The Elanders Group does have plans to invest more in Asia and China is one country that has great interest for us. These investment plans are still to be confirmed but China is an important market for us and we are always positive about investment to maintain a market leading status.