John Browne had spent the day at a solar glass panel factory outside Shanghai, making the case for Kastus, a water-based solution that makes solar panels more efficient. China dominates the global solar panel market and eight out of the world’s top 10 producers are based in a couple of provinces in the southeast of the country.
“We were down here six months ago and the reception, I would say, was lukewarm,” he says. “Six months later, it’s very warm.
“The scale of these things is incredible. The factory is a kilometre long but there were only 20 people working in the actual factory. Fully robotic. Glass coming up from one level on elevators. It’s just absolutely incredible. Their major client is their next-door neighbour so they’re so efficient.”
Kastus is a photocatalytic coating which, when sprayed on glass, breaks down organic material and keeps the surface clean, making it harder for dirt to cling to it. Less dirt means less interference in light transmission, meaning the solar panel is more efficient and capable of generating more energy.
There are so few solar panel manufacturers in Europe that if Dublin-based Kastus is to succeed, it must find a market among producers in China, and Browne, its founder, is hoping to establish a presence in the southeast of the country. He is trying to persuade Chinese manufacturers that, in a fiercely competitive market which will produce two billion solar panels this year, coating their glass with Kastus will give them an edge.
“The revenue potential for us will be €200-€300 million if we were adopted as a standard. Anti-reflective coatings, as an example, are another technology that increases solar power and efficiency by about 2 per cent. It’s a coating that makes slightly more light,” he says.
“It’s ubiquitous. Eighteen months ago that coating wasn’t, and now it’s the standard. So that’s our goal.”
Branca Bunús is a Dublin-based gene therapy company founded by two Chinese-born scientists who have lived and worked in Ireland for many years. Wenxin Wang is a professor of skin research and wound healing at the UCD School of Medicine and Hongyun Tai is a scientist and entrepreneur with a background in polymer chemistry and gene therapy.
Their Chinese background and Mandarin language skills give Wang and Tai an advantage over most Irish entrepreneurs when it comes to entering the market in China. They have already tested and validated their product with Chinese regulators but, for them, China is not an end in itself but a gateway to the rest of the world.
“The key market will be three regions. One is China, the others are Europe and United States. The biggest market is in the United States, because of the payment system and everything but it’s difficult for us to go to the United States straight away. So our strategy is to best use the resources available to us and our connections.
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“So we do the beachhead market here to validate our technology, which is already done and completed. Now we’re trying to expand the market here in China. But in the meantime, we’re expanding the market in Europe, and the next step is go to United States. So that’s the step-by-step thing when we’re doing that,” Tai says.
Exports from indigenous Irish businesses to China were worth almost €1 billion in 2023, accounting for 40 per cent of Irish exports to the Asia-Pacific region. Irish companies including Icon, Keywords International, Kerry and PM Group employ more than 5,000 people in China.
Kastus and Branca Bunús are both clients of Enterprise Ireland, which has offices in Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong and a pathfinder consultant based in Shenzhen. Enterprise Ireland’s China director, Patrick O’Riordan, says that most Irish companies coming to China are experienced exporters for whom China will not be their first overseas market.
“We provide market intelligence, we provide contacts, and we provide advisory services, and probably capturing the aggregate experience of Irish companies in China over a long period of time,” he says.
“You either do the right things as other companies have done or maybe learn from some of the mistakes of companies over a long period.”
Since it came to power in 1949, the Communist Party has set out China’s economic priorities in a series of five-year plans, the 14th of which began in 2021. The current plan focuses on upgrading supply chains in key industries in order to make China a global technology leader with a particular emphasis on green technology and renewables.
Some European companies have reduced their presence in China in recent years, partly because of geopolitical tensions that have seen the United States and the European Union citing national security concerns as they impose restrictions on trade with the country.
O’Riordan says that Irish businesses in China tend not to be operating in geopolitically sensitive sectors so they have not been affected by sanctions, although US president Donald Trump’s tariffs are likely to exacerbate an already tricky economic environment that has seen Chinese domestic demand struggle.
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Many of the Irish companies coming to China are offering something that chimes with strategic priorities of the 14th five-year plan, one of which is food security. This has benefited Irish food producers and exporters of agricultural machinery but an extended property market slump has hit the revenue available to local governments to subsidise the mechanisation of Chinese agriculture.
“For companies who were benefiting from grants that were used for farm equipment, it’s a bit tighter these days,” O’Riordan says.
“I suppose your view on China is: what’s your perspective on a medium- to long-term view? And is the sector that you’re operating in sustainable into the future? Is the market going to be recoverable?”
Peter Markey first came to China 30 years ago and has spent much of the past two decades in Shanghai, where he was a partner at EY until he retired in 2018. Markey now chairs the Irish Chamber of Commerce in China, which was established in 2010 and has more than 50 members – all individuals rather than companies.
“We have some entrepreneurial types working for themselves or freelancing, we have some working for multinationals, a bit like I did, and one or two academics,” he says. “We have people in advertising, accounting, finance, manufacturing, research, fashion, supply chain.”
Markey sees opportunities for Irish businesses in China, not only in sectors such as pharmaceuticals and technology but also in services such as education and healthcare. But companies need to think carefully, research the market and establish local contacts before they plunge into the Chinese market.
“A common misperception is that you’re going to China. China is just way too big. It’s like saying, I’m going to Europe to develop a business,” he says. “You can’t just say China. You need to have a lot more focus on what it is you want to do, where you’re going and why, and what really will work in that particular market.”
Although many Chinese people don’t know much about Ireland, and the cultural differences and language barriers are considerable, Markey believes the Irish and the Chinese get along well.
“The Chinese have this reputation of working crazy hours and all the rest of it but that’s not the whole story,” he says. “They quite like going out for a nice dinner and having fun with people.
“That’s really when the Irish attitude to having fun and letting the hair down a bit can really help with developing relationships.”
On a visit to Australia last year, Ian Lahiffe noticed how many brands of kombucha were on sale, each making claims about its health benefits. In China, where Lahiffe has lived for 14 years and where the concept of fermented tea originates, the product is scarcely available at all and he saw an opportunity.
Working with his friend Enda Winters, a brewer who lived in China but now works at Teeling Whiskey in Dublin, Lahiffe decided to develop his own brand of kombucha called Just Be Cha.
“We started with the very best tea we could find in China, which is this green tea in Chongqing that has the highest levels of polyphenols and the clearest health benefits,” he says. “We developed something, I think, that means that when people now engage with kombucha, hopefully in China, it might be a pleasant experience.”
Lahiffe launched his kombucha last month and a number of bars in Beijing and Shanghai are stocking it. Most of the marketing and sales are on social media and ecommerce platforms. These facilitate distinct marketing strategies for specific demographics, including women between 35 and 50, older people who remember drinking home-made kombucha as children and teenagers, who are the biggest consumers of the drink in the United States.
“The beverage market is still quite strong. So while obviously it’s going to be a challenge to get the price point and the volume, I think we’re very positive about it,” he says.
Born in Gort, Co Galway, Lahiffe studied music at Trinity College Dublin and international relations at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London before working as an intern at the European Union delegation in Beijing. After a year there, he won a scholarship to study Mandarin full-time at a Chinese university, becoming proficient in the language.
After working in Beijing for a number of companies, including Alltech and Merck, Lahiffe started his own advisory business in 2021, representing a number of Irish companies in China and investing in different types of technologies. He has now invested in nine companies, including one that uses artificial intelligence to control lasers to scare birds away from farm land and others that make different technologies for large farms.
He says most Irish companies will need a budget of about €1 million to make a proper market entry and that if they are not already exporting successfully in Europe, they are unlikely to succeed in China. He also warns against choosing the first English-speaking person you meet at a trade fair as your representative in the Chinese market.
Lahiffe identifies the work ethic and the speed of decision-making and action among the advantages of doing business in China, but fierce competition has led to overcapacity in many industries. He warns of what he calls the “grey zone”, where contracts remain negotiable after they are signed, and capricious government bureaucracy which can be challenging.
“What I look for in a business partner is somebody who has that, I wouldn’t say demented energy, but somebody who would thrive in a Kafka novel. I think that’s what I look for,” he said.
