Global BioChem Technology Group, China's largest corn processor, is expanding across the West by opening its first overseas office in the Cincinnati area.
The company opened an office in Blue Ash in March with four employees including COO Jeff Mahaffey, a longtime Cincinnati area resident who joined Global Bio-Chem two years ago. Among Mahaffey's duties are introducing the company to American and European markets and promoting the company brand.
"We're building the commercial organization, branding and marketing and sales distribution," Mahaffey said. "We also want to get better connected to our customers so they (personally) know who we are."
Cincinnati is an ideal location for the company, which offers alternatives to petroleum based products, he said. It processes corn for use in products ranging from plastics and animal feed to sweeteners. The region is centrally located among its traditional customer base, which includes the polyester, resins, heat transfer fluids and consumer goods industries, among other reasons he said.
"It's centrally located, and it's a good place to live," he said. As business grows, the company expects to hire more people. About 6,000 people are employed by the company in China where its manufacturing processes takes place. In addition, Cincinnati is located near large agricultural areas across the Midwest.
"It's in the agricultural belt of the country. We're the largest corn processor in China, and the big feed mills here are in the Midwest," he said.
The company's manufacturing facilities are exclusively in China, but that could someday change.
"We think the technology is good enough to actually bring it to the Western world at some point," Mahaffey said.
Global Bio-Chem Technology was founded in 1994; in China it's known as Dacheng Industry Group. Its facilities are in industrial parks in five Chinese provinces: Changchun, Dehui, Jinzhou, Shanghai, and Xinglongshan.
The company processed 3 million tons of corn in 2010. Its 2010 revenues were $1.2 billion and the company was ranked 46 among the 50 most innovative companies in the world in 2011 by Fast Company Magazine.
Writer: Feoshia Henderson
Source: Global Bio-Chem Technology Group COO Jeff Mahaffey
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