The Edinburgh Natural Skincare Company, headed by the former guitarist of post-punk band The Fall, is bidding to introduce more UK brands to Chinese customers.
It comes after the firm joined forces with Scottish export management solutions specialists Commercial Cross to drive into the Chinese business-to-consumer market.
The business relationship was set up after a chance meeting between Tommy Crooks, founder of ENSC, and Wei Fu, director of CC, in 2015 at Edinburgh’s Christmas Market.
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Discussions later took place on entering the Chinese retail arena and, in 2022, CC launched its Expanding E-commerce to China (EE2C) service in the UK.
It helped the ENSC to open and operate the “first Scottish brand in any sector” to open a Chinese TMall-Global Flagship Store without the use of a distributor.
ENCS’s Gardeners Solid Hand Cream Bar is now the seventh best-selling hand cream on the TMall-Global platform.
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The partnership said its primary goal is “to introduce more UK brands to Chinese customers, building up the reputation and commercial success of a diverse range of UK brands in China”.
Mr Crooks, a self-taught Mandarin speaker, said: “As a business who experienced a relatively frictionless on-boarding process to the TMall Global platform, we are very well placed to help others reach this market and turn their export ambitions into reality.
"Cultural differences frighten many companies into committing to export."
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He said: "I suggested to Wei I come on board as a facilitator to narrow this cultural bridge and share my experience opening a TMall Global Flagship store.
"We now have a fully functioning Chinese income stream, managed by a team of nine staff in China and four Chinese staff in the UK.
“CC oversaw the entire onboarding process from exporting to opening up our Alipay bank account in Hong Kong."
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