Expanding its operations abroad

With the establishment of a Sera branch in the Czech Republic and Sera Japan’s move to its own premises, Sera GmbH of Heinsberg has taken an important step towards servicing these markets. The Sera branch in the Czech Republic has moved into a building situated on a 50 000 m2 site at Kutna Hora. Sera’s products are being marketed from here and it is also planned to relocate some of the production to the new company base in the medium to long term. According to Sera, economic resources will be utilized to the optimum effect: state-of-the-art IT facilities will ensure that the Czech market is served as efficiently as possible, enabling orders to be delivered on time and to the complete satisfaction of local Sera customers. The continuity of the Sera presence in the Czech Republic is guaranteed by the company’s managing director Jiri Borna, who has traded successfully as an importer of Sera products for many years.
Russia: A fascinating dialogue developed on the fringes of a Sera aquatics seminar for specialist retailers in Moscow.
In Japan, too, the company is charting a course for further expansion. The Sera branch there has now acquired its own premises. Logistics and customer care are expected to be significantly improved and strengthened by this, and Sera’s main office in Heinsberg is anticipating a marked increase in its market share as a result.
At the start of the year, the aquatics firm announced its intention of switching to direct marketing of its products in Holland in the future. Specialist retailers there are served by a total of three field sales staff, who forward orders to Sera GmbH electronically. Orders are expected to be processed more quickly with direct marketing. Speaking to PET in Europe, Sera cited growing demand for the company’s products in the retail trade as the reason for switching to direct sales. The company is operating with increasing success in Russia too. Back in February 2001, Sera organized what it claims to be the first fish-keeping seminar ever held in Russia to help specialist dealers there.  The company organized a further seminar in an exclusive Moscow hotel at the end of last November, to which around 50 proprietors and employees of retail businesses stocking Sera products were invited. The guests came from all over Russia, many of them having further to travel than the German Sera speaker, Dieter Untergasser. The seminar focused on the significance and value of Sera products for the specialist retail trade as well as…