The company has been present in the China market for 10 years and now dominates the market. In response to this growth, Crown has agreed with its wholly owned subsidiary Crown Friendship Edible Oils, to consolidate its four manufacturing operations in and around Wuhan into one large facility, also based there.
Crown Iron Works, will hold a 60 per cent stake in the venture, with Crown Friendship holding the remaining stake.
This move will increase manufacturing capacity considerably, and will lead to the creating of a 13,400 square metre facility employing 300 workers. The company added that the expansion will increase fabricating capacity for Crown/FEC as well as providing opportunities for other Western companies to build and market equipment in China.
"Now we are able to provide access to the China market for other companies as well," says Crown's director of Asian Operations, Dan Anderson. "We're in discussion with other technology companies to put together a very high quality core team that will build and market products in China."
The strategy means that Crown Iron is now able to offer a two-pronged manufacturing and marketing service for western companies trying to access the China market. The company says that this allows it to offer price competitiveness through its partner companies on top of being able to offer a complete and comprehensive turnkey service. Crown partner companies do the engineering and gain China market penetration in exchange for royalty payments.
Anderson explained, "As a result, we're preserving US engineering jobs by taking the necessary steps to maintain a cost-advantageous posture in the international marketplace for us and our partner companies."