Written by Jürgen Lück 24.06.2018 – 20:44
Company founder Xu Chao bows deeply before the guests before his speech. Mayor Ralph Zimmermann comes just under an hour late. And Thomas Fröschle aka Wizard Topaz even has green shoes on. Memorable opening of the new OPK European headquarters.
Horb. The showroom on the first floor of the former building of the company Riese Electronic on the Hohenberg is full.
Gray carpet, white chairs – and everywhere the OPK green. Even the sparkling wine after cutting the ribbon at the end of the opening
is mixed with Waldmeister syrup so that the glass content shimmers in the color of the OPK rolls.
After all, with a staff of twelve initially, Xu Chao, founder of Zhongshan, wants to conquer Horb and then Europe and then the world
with his sliding door fittings.
And the chances are good, as Andreas Barthel from the door and door manufacturer Novoferm shows the guests in a presentation:
From the first sliding door, which was constructed in Pompeii more than 2000 years ago, this door has become indispensable in
modern architecture. Barthel: “In the face of rising real estate prices, people have a need to have no fixed partitions through
walls, the hallway will disappear in the long run.” For example, the kitchen and living rooms can be made smaller and smaller by
sliding doors! ” Company founder and general manager Xu Chao pulls out the smartphone and photographs the presentation.
Then Xu Chao comes on stage in a blue suit. Deeply bowed to the guests: “Today is a historic day for OPK – the Horb site is an
important step in our global strategy!” Told from the beginning. Xu: “I was a carpenter, and a customer asked me for a sliding
door without the lower guide rail, so I bought the parts and made the sliding doorway pure handcrafted, which was the first
hanging sliding door system in China.”The company founder also mentions the difficult times of OPK.
Then he praises the Horber Team: “They have a lot of passion, I think they are not because of the high salary at OPK,
but because they can develop their potential on the OPK platform.” I am very proud of our employees In Horb we will not
only have sales, but also research and development, which will also be produced in Horb!”
This means that the Horb site will become the important bridgehead in the initially European market.
And Xu likes it in Horb on his first visit, as he tells the Black Forest messenger: “This is a very nice city,
the people are very nice and not at all arrogant, we will open our R & D center here soon Of course
we need know-how for our customers, which is why Horb also has a research and development department!”
