I am an untypical German, one who is not very fond of beer or soccer. I hate pig’s knuckles, but do like Asian food a lot. It is because that I moved here 20 years ago.
After a successful apprenticeship in one of the major Radio and TV retail shops, Radio Graf in Cologne, I volunteered to join the German Air Force for two years. Having survived my Air Force years with little stress, many successful, sometimes less successful, years awaited me in the German retail business sector.
I moved up the career ladder and ended up working as chief buyer for the electric and electronics goods division for ten years at one of the top three German hypermarket chain stores, Schaper Group, in Hannover. During that time, I frequently had to travel to the Far East to purchase large quantities of consumer electronics products and computer accessories for our group of companies.
I was then offered a position as product manager for Crown Japan at their Hong Kong office, being responsible for sales to their international customers in Europe.
When Crown Japan ceased production of their consumer electronics products in China, I joined Gemex Trading Limited the Far East buying office of German Metro Group in the capacity of product manager for consumer electronics goods. For my international readers, I should mention that Metro Group is the second largest retail group in Europe with a large number of hypermarkets and super markets in various European countries.
I was traveling at least 2 months per year throughout Asia looking for new buying opportunities and enjoyed living the Asian way.
After a failed attempt to move back to Germany, my wife and I returned to Hong Kong to open the Far East representative office of Clatronic International GmbH, the leading importer in Europe for small electrical home appliances and consumer electronics products.
Using my extensive knowledge about Chinese and other Asian production areas I transformed the office from a single person company to a truely international trading company and sourcing office for our German principals.
I was in charge of that office as Managing Director for more than ten years.
After my retirement I founded my own consulting company WebMediaBiz in Germany to help importers of China products with their sometimes difficult task.
I have also written an eight e-Book series about Importing from China that gives importers the knowledge to confidently import highly profitable products from China.
Our membership program for importers allows companies on low budget to benefit from our consulting services at a low cost package price.