Millar Western
Sales & Marketing
Millar Western is a family-owned, Canadian group of companies that has been in business for more than a century. They make high-quality lumber and pulp for builders and papermakers around the world.
In 1993, the straw pulp was abundantly available in China. At the time it was believed that straw pulp would continue to dominate the market due to its low cost, despite the excessive pollution produced by the pulping process.
Millar Western’s bleached chemi-thermomechanical pulp (BCTMP) was a superior product, however, convincing the Chinese market to make the upgrade would be no small task. We worked with Millar Western on their branding strategy in China, registering the brand name “Crystal” to clearly differentiate the product.
As the Chinese paper-making industry modernized, we were well-positioned to represent Millar Western’s interests. Operating directly and transparently on their behalf, sales took off in 1997, growing to nearly 50% of Millar Western’s total production today. “Crystal” is now recognized across China as the premium brand name for BCTMP.
Millar Western is one of our longest, ongoing clients. Our work together exemplifies true partnership and continues to gain strength as we expand to fields beyond pulp.
Testimonial
Our relationship with TAK International dates back to 1993, when we retained TAK to serve as our pulpsales agent in China. Since first making contact with Brian Trendel, Wang Ke and their team, we have relied on TAK to help us navigate the complex and constantly shifting marketplace that is China.
TAK has helped our company to understand regulatory requirements and transcend cultural and language barriers to find and retain customers and forge lasting business relationships. TAK has done so by training its personnel to exceptionally high standards and, more importantly, by ensuring that they eff ectively represent our company and its values.
We have been most impressed by TAK’s commitment to learn the technical intricacies of our business, which, in our industry, is key to gaining the trust and confi dence of customers. China is now one of the most important destinations for our products, in no small part due to TAK’s support and direction
TAK is a business that is unique in Alberta, providing not only insightful guidance based on decades of experience but working in strong alliance with its customers to ensure the realization of shared business objectives. Based on our history, I would highly recommend TAK to any company looking to build a presence in China.