The new GROB Machine Tools (Thailand) subsidiary replaces the representative office in Bangkok and began operations on January 1, 2022 under the management of Managing Director Uwe Wedler. Following South Korea (2005), India (2009), Vietnam (2019), Japan (2019) and the two Chinese subsidiaries in Beijing (2003) and Shanghai (2005), GROB Thailand is the seventh Asian subsidiary in the GROB Group.
Of the total of six employees at GROB Thailand – two service employees, one sales employee, one administrative employee and one country manager – three employees have been at the main production site in Mindelheim for training since the beginning of February. “By establishing a subsidiary with legal capacity, we have better framework conditions in Thailand to conclude legally binding transactions in our own name, which we were not able to do through our representative office in the past,” says Uwe Wedler about the new foundation. “GROB Thailand is another strategically important milestone in strengthening and growing GROB's sales activities in Southeast Asia.”
Thanks to its increased presence and the development of partnerships, the last few years have been very positive for GROB in Southeast Asia, despite Corona. In fact, despite difficult general conditions, a large order for eight G550 universal machining centers including two pallet storage systems and another order for five G550 and two G700F machining centers were won in 2021 thanks to the excellent cooperation with the key account management from Mindelheim.
“With the establishment of GROB Thailand, we are now available to our customers as the main contact right from the start,” says Uwe Wedler. “In addition, we are now able to offer suitable service and a spare parts warehouse directly in Bangkok.” A further goal is to build up GROB's own sales and service network in order to be able to work the market in Thailand even more successfully and, for example, to provide faster and more effective service in the event of machine failures and to ensure customer production.
Uwe Wedler has been living in Thailand for 21 years and has worked for various engineering companies and tool manufacturers from Germany. Since June 2020, he has been in charge of the Southeast Asian region as Managing Director Asia Pacific for GROB plants and, in addition to the Thai GROB subsidiary, he also manages the Vietnamese GROB subsidiary in Haiphong.
