Pierre Grossenbacher left his native Switzerland in 1986 for the grand adventure in China. He was the first foreign employee of Tetra Pak to reside in China. Twenty-one years later, after holding various positions in China as well as in South Korea and taking a brief retirement, Pierre Grossenbacher and his wife Marcelle are still in China. They split their time between Gaotang, the capital of Shandong, and Beijing.
A native of Romont, in the canton of Fribourg, Switzerland, this physics engineer graduated from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne. He began his career as the director of a production laboratory and deputy director of production in a Swedish glass company. He then led a research project on ceramics at the Research Center of Swiss Aluminum Ltd., in Neuhausen am Rheinfall, Switzerland. In 1973-74, he was the production manager of Sadem SA, a synthetic stones and crystals factory in Courtepin, Switzerland. The following year, he managed 120 employees at the Electroverre Romont SA factory.
In 1975, he became the deputy director of the food packaging production plant Tetra Pak, Romont, Switzerland. For nine years, he oversaw the planning departments, personnel (250 employees), purchasing, shipping, and IT.
In 1986, Pierre and Marcelle Grossenbacher moved to Beijing. Tetra Pak had transferred technology to a company owned by the city of Beijing and the Chinese government. He was the first foreign employee of Tetra Pak to reside in China. He spent over eight years as a senior technical advisor at the Tetra Pak China Ltd plant in Beijing, working with the Chinese management of the company and learning to negotiate with the Chinese and their bureaucracy.
From 1994 to 1996, Pierre Grossenbacher was the Packaging Director at Tetra Laval Food China Ltd in Beijing. He then moved to Seoul, South Korea, for two years to oversee production at another Tetra Pak packaging plant. After leaving Tetra Pak, he served as the General Manager of Operations in China for EcoLean AB (eco-friendly packaging) in Beijing for four years. In February 2002, he retired to Thailand.
Retirement was short-lived for Pierre Grossenbacher, as in May 2003, he and his wife Marcelle packed their bags again and moved to Gaotang, in the coastal province of Shandong. There, he took on the role of overseeing the production of liquid food packaging at Shandong Tralin Packaging Co Ltd.
Over the course of four years, this state-owned enterprise transitioned into a Chinese private company before opening up to international capital and eventually welcoming American investments. Employing over 200 workers, the factory produced more than one billion packaging cartons in 2006. This year, production is expected to exceed two billion packages.
Retirement was short-lived for Pierre Grossenbacher, as in May 2003, he and his wife Marcelle packed their bags again and moved to Gaotang, in the coastal province of Shandong. There, he took on the role of overseeing the production of liquid food packaging at Shandong Tralin Packaging Co Ltd.
Over the course of four years, this state-owned enterprise transitioned into a Chinese private company before opening up to international capital and eventually welcoming American investments. Employing over 200 workers, the factory produced more than one billion packaging cartons in 2006. This year, production is expected to exceed two billion cartons.
Over the twenty years passed in China, Pierre and Marcelle Grossenbacher have witnessed a significant slice of the country's history. From 1986 to 1989, Mr. Grossenbacher had to work without a telephone. He had to go to a hotel to make calls to his bosses in Hong Kong and Switzerland. After the crackdown on the Tiananmen Square protests, the Grossenbachers were ordered by Tetra Pak to leave the country for 14 days, purportedly to protect company knowledge.
In 2003, Pierre Grossenbacher experienced the panic caused by the SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) crisis. The disease emerged in Guangdong province, and its rapid spread led to numerous controls in a country already heavily regulated. Pierre Grossenbacher still has a collection of masks from that time, though he never actually wore them.
According to Pierre Grossenbacher, the most astonishing aspect of China is the speed at which things change! "What is said now may no longer be true in 5 minutes," he jokes, admitting to being fascinated by the country, its people, and its culture.
Pierre Grossenbacher's most recent journey was a trip to Tibet with about fifteen Swiss friends from the Lions Club Fribourg Sarine. Over the years, Pierre has organized numerous trips for this group, including to classic China, the Silk Road, the Tea Route, Cambodia, Uzbekistan, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, and Quebec.
At 65 years old, Pierre Grossenbacher enjoys his life and work in China. Marcelle Grossenbacher speaks Chinese very well. The couple is very close-knit and feels comfortable in China, dividing their time between Beijing and Gaotang.
