Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/658237
tobaccoasia 53 SolutionS for SucceSS. Intersupply 2016 16 – 18 september DortmunD, Germany World's largest trade fair for tobacco products and smoking accessories www.intertabac.com light up your BuSineSS. Intertabac 2016 16 – 18 september DortmunD, Germany International trade fair for the production of tobacco goods www.intersupply.com IT_IS_2016_Kombi_AZ_Besucher_TobaccoAsia_89x254_E_RZ.indd 1 24.02.16 15:28 And it almost goes without saying that the company installs newly purchased machinery at the respective client's facility free of charge, with the crucial software system provided in the cus- tomer's preferred language. Additionally, customers can send engineers or operating teams to KARDIEN's servicing training center in Daejeon. Recently, the company also inaugurated a direct service center in Beijing, China, and according to Lee has plans to establish further such centers around Southeast Asia and in Turkey, but also in other countries as the need arises and "depending on how our sales grow there". Future Outlook While KARDIEN currently has fewer than 30 employees on its payroll (Lee: "All of them are highly skilled in the tobacco machinery field."), the company has access to a large pool of further professionals thanks to the broad range of tobacco-re- lated affiliates within the KT&G group of companies. Although the firm maintains several manufacturing bases around Korea and in theory would be able to also assemble and market other tobacco-processing machines apart from measuring and testing equipment, such an expansion – at least for the time being – is not an immediate priority for Lee. "The biggest challenge for KARDIEN at the moment is to fulfill our customers' needs in providing simple-to-use and ex- traordinarily reliable testing equipment to keep abreast with ever so rapidly changing market conditions and trends. That is our prime focus, and that's where our vocation lies. While we defi- nitely have the capacity to expand into other machinery sectors, it is a matter that will need to be considered in the future and also depends on the support we receive from tobacco manufacturing industries worldwide." KARDIEN Test-Station, the original KARDIEN product