This year, the Behn Meyer Plastics team organised their regional meeting at Flamingo Dai Lai Resort in Vinh Phuc, Vietnam. Touting its geography as “the land of graceful mountains and debonair water”, the resort is surrounded on all sides by lush greenness and beautiful landscapes as far as the eye can see. Amidst these beautiful sights, the meeting participants were checked into bungalow villas, and then formally welcomed to the meeting with a group dinner at Poem Restaurant.
The first day of the meeting, on 19 September 2019, was reserved for product and application training sessions with our suppliers. It was our honour to have with us Mr. Steve Foster, the Managing Director of Birch Chemicals, who coached the team on the qualities of Masterox and Innovox, which are calcium oxides that can improve moisture absorption and surface finishing for plastic products. Following that, the session opened up for discussions on the alignment of sales strategy related to our focus segments, namely PVC and compounders, expanding into the polyamide and other moisture-sensitive resins markets.
The day continued with a second session, led by Mr. Tomas Duda from Auser Polimeri, which is an Italian dynamic and technology-driven manufacturer specialising in providing sophisticated solutions for high performance polymers. During Mr. Duda’s session, the team was introduced to Auser Polimeri’s rich range of products, including maleic hydride, which allows for the production of high dispersion coupling agents for the wood-plastic composites (WPC) sector. Further, the session also helped everyone understand better the application of impact modifiers and dispersing agents for the compounding of engineering plastics, halogen-free flame retardants (HFFRs) and olefin plastics.
These training sessions were of particular importance and timeliness, as the Asian market for resin compounders and engineering resins have been rapidly growing in recent times.
Mr. Athi Roongaraya, a Key Account Manager from EMS Group, led the third and final session of the day to demonstrate the capabilities offered by Nylon-66 compound. Traditionally used for automotive parts, the material has now been adapted for electrical & electronic (E&E) and even electric vehicle (EV) applications, where it can replace metal parts for total weight reduction.
On the second day, the meeting continued with presentations from each country’s representatives highlighting their performance in the past period and sharing their success stories from the automotive, E&E, medical, packaging and consumer sectors. Following this, there were further country presentations targeting common supplier products specifically in order to enhance everyone’s knowledge on the applications of the targeted products. The meeting participants were briefed thoroughly on marketing and sales strategies for the selling of resins against specialty chemicals to further develop the team as consultants to the industry.
The regional meeting is not only a time for high-level talks and discussions, but also an opportunity for the team members to have fun together as a team. The participants were invited down to the beach for an afternoon of team building activities which were filled with laughter, great team spirit and joyous energy. When the evening came, dinner was served at the beach with a generous BBQ buffet spread while everyone enjoyed each other’s company and the gorgeous view of the night sky.
All participants departed for their respective homes, well-equipped with the knowledge and sharing they have received in order to grow their customers and businesses. We will see everyone again in 2020!
