For starters, the landlord is a lady. Sun Lijun is the chairperson of Shanghai New Jinshan Industrial Investment & Development—a company that was established in 2005 and is primarily engaged in real estate manage­ment and the development and construction of industrial sites. The Jinshan high-tech industrial park is one of those up-and-com­ing areas. “We’re very happy to have found this location in Shanghai. We’re a perfect fit for that setting, plus we’ve got plenty of potential for further growth,” says Thomas Köberlein, Managing Director of Schreiner Group in China. The extension of the Chi­nese production site was one of the topics on the top of the agenda during the delega­tion’s visit to Oberschleissheim—in addition to a tour of the factory floor.

Schreiner Group has been active in China for 16 years, and with its own production site in Shanghai for the past eight years. At the end of 2022, the company relocated the factory from Fengpu to Jinshan and enlarged it. “During the move the coronavi­rus pandemic with all its restrictions really took a toll on our nerves!” Köberlein recalls. “However, the fact that we were always able to count on the support of our landlords during the whole time was a positive—it was really worth a lot!” Mutual appreciation and keen interest in the companies residing in the industrial park are hallmarks of this special landlord-tenant relationship, and the visit by Sun Lujin and her team underscores the importance of this transcontinental part­nership.