China is a strong growth engine in the Novozymes’ globalization strategy; given that China is the second largest national market for Novozymes, after the U.S. It opened first office in China in 1992 in Hong Kong and moved to Beijing in 1997. Novozymes represents one of the largest Danish investments in China with a total realized investment of more than 500 million U.S. dollars by 2012.
“China is a very interesting place and of course we see the changes in the Chinese economy and we hope obviously to grow faster than 10 percent in China, so china will have to take up a larger and larger piece of Novozymes revenue,” said Peder Holk Nielsen, who has taken over the post of CEO from the retired Steen Riisgaard since April 1, 2013.
With around 200 scientists and researchers, Novozymes’ R&D Center in the Zhongguancun Science Park of Beijing is the first foreign invested biotech research institution in China. And the company expects to expand the staff and operations in China.
“We will also be more and more people in China. Today every fifth employees of Novozymes is a Chinese and I expect that in a period of five years there will be more people in China relatively speaking in Novozymes; so more customers, more sales and more people relatively to the company.” he said.
Nielsen sees big opportunities and potentials in food and household care area in China. For example, it has entered strategic partnerships with the large detergent companies in China as Liby and Nice.
Novozymes’ enzymes can replace traditional chemical ingredients, allowing manufacturers to produce laundry detergent that cleans well at low wash temperatures and in environmentally friendly manner.
As water is increasingly being recognized as a critical sustainable development issue, Nielsen believes that Novozymes’ innovative biotech solutions could contribute the water-saving in China.
“Water is taking up a larger and larger piece of the agenda. In particular in China, there is a large textile industry. We have a lot of offerings for the textile industry which essentially reduces the requirements for rinses, so you don’t have to rinse as much and that’s where most of the water is spend,” he said.
