Old hong adapts to challenges in a changing China

Jebsen & Co has transformed itself from a representative agent of multinationals into an enterprise with proprietary and value-adding businesses

OF THE HANDFUL of imperial China trade hongs that have survived more than a century of war, economic crisis and political turmoil, perhaps none remains more closely held than Jebsen & Co.

Founded in Shanghai's German Club on New Year's Eve 1894 by two family friends from the German port town of Apenrade (present-day Aabenraa in Denmark), the merchant house got its start with a monopoly contract from BASF selling indigo dye to China.

However, after spending the past century bringing companies such as Siemens, Bosch, Volkswagen, Schering and Merck to the China market, recent years have seen Jebsen & Co contending with the gradual dissolution of the role of the representative agent.

'At the time when China was far away and a less important market for many manufacturers ... it was the middleman that mattered,' third-generation chairman Hans Michael Jebsen said.

'With the transparency now, the accessibility and the general awareness that China is such an important market, this is something that works against the world of long-term agencies,' he said.

It's not the first such sea change the firm has had to navigate - a fact unlikely to be lost on the 49-year-old Mr Jebsen, who is an avid reader of history. He said: 'Not for the sake of looking back but for getting clues to the present.