International Cooperation BÖWE – Sankosha
Sasbach June 21st: the longest day of the year, was the Kick-Off of the newly established Sankosha Europe, together with the Bowe company. The new joint venture company will be steered by Max Ziermann, the son of Frank Ziermann, owner and CEO of BÖWE and Ziermann companies. On behalf of Sankosha Robert Wijanarko will be responsible for Overseas Sales.
“For Sankosha this is a wonderful opportunity to uplevel sales in Europe”, according to Mr. Ken Uchikoshi, Sales & marketing Director of Sankosha. “Japan is far away from the European market, hence a well-equipped Sales & Distribution Centre in Sasbach will be able to service customers more adequately. This is also taking away language barriers in a multilingual Europe. Furthermore Europe is very different, in culture, in fashion, in ways of doing business. So a single approach as Sankosha operations in the USA is not effective. For BÖWE Frank Ziermann wanted also to be able to cover the finishing side so there is a perfect match for this cooperation. Drycleaning business is currently stabilizing. Therefore to sell the BÖWE brand is more attractive for BÖWE and their customers than to sell only products. For that reason Max Ziermann was sent to Japan for a period of 6 months to learn the Sankosha product range. Because of the second hand business Ziermann has also a great international network and can reach out to a great number of customers in top end and low end of the market, also in developing countries. So Ziermann can really contribute to the development of the Finishing Equipment for the future. So this partnership in Sankosha Europe is a wonderful match. Texcare International will be the first joint convention for Sankosha Europe, where the latest developments will be introduced. Such as the new Sankosha Press Free Finisher, based upon innovative technologies. In fact some people have seen this and are really enthusiastic about it. To see it is much better than online presentations”, Uchikoshi stated.
Investment challenges
“Ziermann is really serious about this. They will be handling sales, but also the after sales service adequately. BÖWE and Sankosha will still be responsible for their own sales. Max Ziermann will be responsible for Sankosha Europe. He will be Mr. Sankosha Europe Next Generation. Frank Ziermann has developed and invested in BÖWE very strongly as a manufacturer and is now supporting this great challenge to set up the new business line in Europe. A big energy”.
Challenges for Youngsters
Sankosha is the biggest supplier of professional finishing equipment in the USA. They were very fortunate in many situations. By introducing this new business, Sankosha intends to reach out effectively to the European market and become the biggest here as well. A wonderful challenge for the youngsters of today and tomorrow.
