PureCircle Ltd. (PCRTF)

[tykundegex]

Artcile about PURE in China (with underlining added)

http://purecircle.com/news/general-news/employee-spotlight-ansen-xu-sales-manager-purecircle-china

Employee Spotlight: Ansen Xu, Sales Manager PureCircle China
Establishing the "new stevia" in China

13-Jul-2011

It takes a special talent to cultivate a business from the ground up and make it fly, but Ansen Xu has it. Upon joining PureCircle in May of 2009, Xu took on the challenge of setting-up a presence for the company in China and developing a distribution network.

It was a daunting challenge in a country where more than 30 stevia suppliers fill the market. But today, as the Sales Manager for PureCircle China, Xu leads PureCircle’s business in the largest country in the world, managing distributors and providing service to key, global food and beverage customers.

Since earning his bachelor’s degree from South China Agricultural University in 1996, Xu has held positions in the laboratories of global ingredient companies including Quest International and McCormick & Co.; and sales and management positions that culminated in his role as President and CEO of the import/export firm Guangzhou Ambition Trading Co., Ltd.

What attracted Xu to join PureCircle, he says, was the company’s ability to deliver “the highest level of quality and operate the broadest base of operations in the world.”


Full-Lifecycle Service
While all customers expect their suppliers to reduce costs – and stevia has the added bonus of doing so naturally – many expect more than a good up-front ingredient price. In turn, Xu stresses the need to “go beyond cost reduction and formulation services to help companies across the full lifecycle of their project. And that is why they come to PureCircle.”

For example, Xu spearheaded PureCircle’s successful effort to gain regulatory approval for stevia in yogurt from China's Ministry of Health. As a result, new yogurt products naturally sweetened with stevia by PureCircle will be launching soon in China.

Xu has also been instrumental in bringing marketing solutions to customers through the Stevia PureCircle® trust mark platform. With support from Xu, the Stevia PureCircle® trust mark has been translated into local languages and PureCircle’s consumer website (www.steviapurecircle.com) has been translated into Mandarin.


The New Stevia
Stevia, used in China for more than three decades, has suffered from flat sales owing to inconsistent quality and taste. In contrast, PureCircle’s supply chain is fully vertically integrated – from proprietary plant breeding to farming to company-owned extraction facilities and a state-of-the-art refinery that provides PureCircle stevia to the world.

The result is, simply, the world’s first, viable all-natural sweetener that can complement sugar in mainstream foods and beverages. The advances are so radical that Xu coined a new name for stevia by PureCircle: “The New Stevia.”

“No other company provides such consistently great taste, texture and quality,” he says.


Making A Difference
Xu has worked tirelessly, frequently traversing major agricultural and manufacturing centers across Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and other cities, suburbs and rural sites across China. As a result, sales in China are “really starting to take-off,” says Chris Hession, Vice President of Sales for PureCircle Asia Pacific.

“We’re now launching new products on a regular basis, and we expect the next six months will see a quantum shift in our business in China,” says Hession, “and this has been largely due to the hard work and resilience of Ansen. We are very lucky to have him.”