Organised by China-Britain Business Council and led by Saltire Foundation Manager Linda Barclay, the Business Management Exchange Delegation of the Scottish Saltire Foundation visited Sanpower Group for exchanges and learning on December 16. Yue Lei, Senior Vice President of Sanpower Group, received the guests, accompanied by Ge Qiqi, Business Director of the Group External Cooperation Management Centre.

Saltire Foundation aims at cultivating the future stars for the commercial world of Scotland. Formed by more than 20 enterprise managers from the UK, the US, Switzerland, Chile, etc., the delegation visited those successful enterprises in Shanghai and Nanjing and got a deeper understanding of the actual operation conditions of Chinese enterprises and the investment environment in China. They first visited the Showroom of Sanpower Home and learned about the history of Sanpower Group. Then they enjoyed a wonderful time in the novelty product concept store of Brookstone. Actually House of Fraser, the British quintessential department store purchased by Nanjing Cenbest under Sanpower Group, is well known among the delegation members. They are also frequent visitors to Brookstone stores at the airports in America.

 

At the subsequent meeting, Yue Lei shared the international strategies and the operation and management philosophies of Sanpower Group with the delegation members. As introduced by Yue Lei, “transformation” is a hot word in today’s Chinese society, and with a history of 22 years, Sanpower has gone through four transformations since its establishment. From 2014, Sanpower has accelerated its international development in an all-round way. It has successively carried out five M&A activities and one investment activity in five countries and regions. Besides, it has studied and utilised the brands, resources, concepts and modes of overseas enterprises. However, it “has never lost itself while learning and absorbing” and perfectly combined the traditional Confucianism with the western modern management. These innovative development patterns and management philosophies have strongly driven Sanpower’s rapid development.

The overseas enterprise managers fully agreed to Yue Lei’s words. During the discussion, they raised various questions centred on the topics about how to realise the smooth landing of international brands in China, how to manage overseas enterprises, etc. The atmosphere was very hot during the Q&A process. The delegation members said they learned a lot during this visit to Sanpower and that they were looking forward to the future exchanges and cooperation with Sanpower.