Europe → China
Develop in China.
For French and European companies ready to build in China: market entry, the right partners, distribution that holds, and a presence Chinese buyers recognise.
Six decisions come before the first euro
Most China entries fail slowly, not suddenly — and almost always because a decision was postponed rather than made badly. These are the six that set everything after them:
- Which part of China you are actually entering — the country is not one market.
- Whether you need a legal entity now, later, or not at all.
- Who owns the customer relationship: you, or your distributor.
- What your product must change to be bought, not merely admired.
- Where your brand is protected — before you start showing it around.
- How long you can fund the gap before revenue arrives.
Trademark first. In China, rights generally go to the first party to file, not the first to use — which is why protection belongs at the start of the process rather than the end.
Finding a partner is the easy half
Candidate lists are cheap. What takes time is establishing whether a company actually sells into your segment, whether the licence matches the activity, whether the people you met will still be there next year, and what happens to your brand if the relationship ends.
That work is unglamorous and it is the work. A distributor who is enthusiastic and wrong will cost a year; one who is cautious and right will still be there in five.
What we do on this side.
Market entry
Structure, sequence and the honest version of what the first year looks like.
Partner & distributor search
Identification, qualification, and the conversations that follow.
Commercial representation
Someone on the ground between your visits, in your time zone and theirs.
Digital that supports it
A China-ready presence, because buyers check before they reply.
Questions we get on this.
Do I need a legal entity in China before I can sell?
Not always, and the answer depends on what you sell, to whom and how you get paid. It is one of the six decisions that come before the first euro — worth deciding rather than postponing, because entities are slow to create and slower to unwind.
When should we register the trademark?
Before showing the brand around. In China rights generally go to the first party to file rather than the first to use, so protection belongs at the start of the process, not at the end of it.
How do you qualify a distributor?
Candidate lists are cheap; qualification is the work. Whether the company actually sells into your segment, whether its licence matches the activity it describes, whether the people you met will still be there next year, and what happens to your brand if the relationship ends.
Is China one market?
No — and treating it as one is the assumption that quietly breaks the plan. Deciding which part of China you are actually entering comes before almost everything else.
Tell us where you are, where you want to go and what you want to build.