1.

Background Information

Leather industry has occupied a remarkable market in the arena of fashion wear, car interior design,
home interior, aeronautic materials and many other sectors. Many countries like China, Italy,
Vietnam, Germany, Indonesia, India etc. are earning significant amount of foreign currency by
exporting leather goods. But raw material collections (leather collection by slaughtering animal)
and highly toxin production process are the key shocking ethical factors against this industry. Dr.
Carmen Hijosa, A Spanish citizen, founder CEO of Pinatex, a leather production and
manufacturing expert, thought to develop an environment friendly alternative of animal leather
(Ananas-anam, 2017). She researched on pineapple fiber and come up with a unique alternative of
leather named Pinatex. Pinatex is also called Vegan Leather because it has no contact with animals.

Pinatex is cellulose based natural fiber and the raw material is collected from wasted and rejected
pineapple leaves. This fiber is strong, versatile, breathable, soft, light, flexible, can be printed on,
stitched and cut. “Piñatex has much more advantages over the leather extracted from animals
because animal leather creates a wastage of around 30%. The fibers for Piñatex, however, are
extracted entirely from the leaves of pineapple, so there is much less waste. Moreover, it looks,
acts and performs like leather. It is also natural, renewable and eco-friendly. The Ananas Anam
started to sell only 9 months ago and now they have already more than 500 clients in their list
including Samsung, Puma, Porsche, BMW, Mercedez Benz” (Pinatex, 2017).

The production process of Pinatex starts with gathering pineapple leaves from the farm. After
finishing pineapple harvesting, pineapple leaves remain in the fields as by product. It means the
process does not require additional land, water, fertilizer or pesticides. Next step is smashing the
leave to bring out the fiber from solid mass. Collected fibers are going to clot together with lignin
and pectin. Next step is the degumming process to remove lignin and pectin and separating the
fibers. Later on the fibers are washed and mashed into nonwoven fabric. No harmful chemical is
used in any level of production and after production no toxic waste or byproduct is created.

Though durability of Pinatex is lower that leather but the Visual or aesthetics are quite same. It is
water resistant but not waterproof. Dying method is similar like cotton as it is cellulose based. The
texture and feel are as good as leather but Pinatex have better air & water breathability and more
comfortable to wear.

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Demand of Pinatex is growing rapidly which indicate the worldwide acceptance of this fiber as
alternative of animal leather. Concerning this market scenario, this report will try to prescribe the
entry strategy in China. China is a country of per capita GDP of $14,401 in 2016 which is second
highest in the world (World Bank, 2017). Inside the report we are going to find out suitable entry
mode for Pinatex in China concerning economic, political, competitive and technological
environments.

2. Environmental Variable Analysis of China

We did various environmental analysis on Chinese perspective to find whether Pintex will be
suitable for china or not. Brief analysis of four environmental variables are given below.

2.1 Economic Environment Analysis: Several factors should be considered as economic

environment while expanding any international business procedure, specifically in case of China.
The major factors are per capita income of the Chinese consumers, bureaucracy, governmental
challenges, trade regulations of china (such as tariff rate, import tariff, vat, consumption tax,
business tax, and corporate income tax, quota and licensing control and free trade agreements with
China).
In December 2016 Chinese consumers per capita income was as USD 6894.50. The important thing
is, this income was three times higher than Bangladesh & India whose Per capita income were
1029.60 and 1861.50 respectively (Trading Economics, 2017).
Bureaucracy:
The overseas firms often have to struggle with laws and regulations in China, which results 31%
of 338 respondents in a recent business survey concerned bureaucracy as their number one option
for expanding into the country. Most common complaints revolve around obtaining the required
licenses and permits, with many respondents complaining the laborious processes (TMF Group,
2017).
Governmental challenges:
Primary concerns for companies to moving into China are transparency of government procedure
and corruption, although as the new leadership is likely to be changed. The Chinese Citizens need
to believe that the government’s decisions serve their interests, and there is a growing risk that the
Party leaders increasingly are viewed as clinging to power in order to enrich themselves (TMF
Group, 2017).

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Trade Regulations of China:
In China foreign trading system has continuously liberalized. According to China’s amended
Foreign Trade Law which went into effect from July 2004, all types of enterprises, including
private enterprises, can register for the trading right. Individual Chinese are also allowed to conduct
foreign trade under the amended Foreign Trade Law. According to WTO, China's average applied
most favored nation (MFN) tariff rate was 9.9% in 2015, progressively down from 15.3% in 2001.
The average tariff was higher for agricultural products at 15.6% while the average tariff for non-
agricultural products was 9.0% (HK Economy, 2017).
The import tariff quotes on daily client merchandise which is beginning from 1 June 2015 which
includes positive garments, footwear, skincare products, and paper diapers are slashed, at a price
averaging 50%. In this round of adjustment, the import tariff on suits and fur skin apparels is
decreased from 14-23% to 7-10%; import tariff on quick boots and sports activities shoes goes
down from 22-24% to 12%; import tariff on paper diapers will drop from 7.5% to 2%; while that
on skincare merchandise from 5% to 2% (HK Economy).
Anti-dumping and countervailing duties may be imposed on imported goods that pose a threat to
Chinese national industries. Tariff should be imposed on imported agricultural products include-
wheat, corn, rice, soybean oil, rapeseed oil, palm oil, sugar, cotton and wool.
17% VAT is imposed on imported goods and 13% for familiar items such as some foodstuffs,
grains and suitable for eating vegetable oils, gas and other electricity products for domestic use,
books and newspapers, magazines, feedstuffs and fertilizers, etc. which is lower than imported
goods. Foreign-invested export processing organizations are required to pay VAT on imported
uncooked materials, parts and components. Upon exports, the paid VAT will offset the VAT
payable for the phase of national sale goods. Excess will be rebated (HK Economy, 2017).
Consumption tax is imposed to imports of cigarettes and tobacco, alcoholic drinks, high-end
cosmetics, skin and hair care products, jewelry and precious stones, motor cycles, motor cars,
gasoline and diesel oil, golf clubs and equipment, high-end watches, yachts, disposable wooden
chopsticks and wood floor panels (luxury products).
Business tax is a type of turnover tax levied on the income generated from the provision of taxable
services. From 2012, China commenced to enforce commercial enterprise tax to VAT conversion
pilot program. With impact from 1 May 2016, the VAT conversion pilot program had been
prolonged to cowl the fields of real property and construction, finance and purchaser services.

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Currently, the program covers each goods and offerings with the VAT fee of 3-17% (HK Economy,
2017).
Corporate income tax is lowered to 25% (from 30%) for both domestic and foreign-invested
enterprises from January 2008. Individual income tax for foreign nationals working in China is
charged at progressive rates from 3% to 45% (HK Economy, 2017).
Quota and licensing control:
Quota and licensing necessities have been eliminated on the majority of imports beginning from
2005, and solely a restrained wide variety of merchandise are now concern to import licensing
control. In 2017, only two classes of commodities, specifically ozone depleting elements and key
used mechanical and electronic products, totaling 139 objects below the 10-digit tariff code, are
situation to import licensing control (HK Economy, 2017).
Free Trade Agreements with China:
Currently, China has signed and carried out 14 free trade agreements (FTAs) and another 9 FTAs
are under negotiation. Besides the Closer Economic and Partnership Agreements with Hong Kong
and Macau, China has FTAs in pressure with areas and countries such as ASEAN, New Zealand,
Singapore, Switzerland, Korea and Australia. It is presently negotiating FTAs with areas and
nations such as Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), the Gulf Cooperation
Council (GCC) countries, Norway, Japan-Korea, Sri Lanka, and Maldives. For details, please refer
to China FTA Network website under the MOFCOM (HK Economy, 2017).

Opportunities Rating Threats Rating

1. Per capita income 5 1. Bureaucracy 5
2. Tariff rate 5 2. Government procedure 3
and corruption
3. Quota and licensing 4 3. Income tax 3
requirements
4. Corporate income 2 4. VAT 2

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2.2 Technological Environment Analysis: Technological Environment means the development
in the field of technology which impacts business through new innovations of productions and
different upgrades in techniques to operate the business work (Business Education. 2009).
China is a type of technological Galapagos island, some distinct and isolated surroundings in which
local firms can flourish. Chinese local firms are covered from external competition by government
legislation and the Great Firewall. That protection means that they need not to innovate but can
thrive by way of copying business models developed in the West. In short, China is closed, its local
firms are cosseted and their brain is for mimicry (The Economist, 2016).
With the declared purpose to become a global leader in science and technology, China launched a
landmark program in 2015 for “mass entrepreneurship and innovation’’, to cultivate grassroots
entrepreneurship in the course of the country. This vision is aligned with the country’s economic
aim to shift from labor-intensive manufacturing to innovation-driven growth, and China is
dedicating resources and policy help to improve price chains, improve technological advancement
and improve innovation in manufacturing and service oriented industries.
In addition to top-down goals to improve its innovation ability in order to stay competitive, China’s
innovation power is additionally being led by using bottom-up elements such as the increase of
Chinese entrepreneurs who are disrupting traditional industries, as well as technological influences
ranging from e-commerce and social media to web finance that are supporting China leapfrog its
innovation process.
Indicators exhibit that China has what it takes to boost to the forefront of global innovation. This
consists of soaring R&D spending (China’s R&D expenditure reached 1.18 trillion yuan ($ 193
billion) in 2013, a 15% rise year-on-year, and is set to overtake the European Union and the United
States to be the top R&D-invested country by the cease of this decade), a large range of corporate
patents, a new generation of entrepreneurial CEOs and high proportion of engineering and science
graduates (World Economic Forum, 2017).
However, limiting factors consist of vulnerable intellectual property rights enforcement, a route
learning-based education system, internet censorship, forced technology transfer policies and a top-
down innovation model may negatively affect China’s grassroots entrepreneurial and innovative
forces. Moreover, China wishes to overcome a perception issue about the quality and reliability of
its products and that Chinese companies obtain an unfair benefit in the international market through
subsidized government financing and other policy tools.

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The country’s innovation drive has led to a considerable upward push in the quantity of private-
sector firms in China (rising four- fold since last decade) that are increasingly more moving from
imitate to innovate, and additionally shifting from serving the local market to venturing into the
foreign marketplace. Moreover, there has been the boom in China’s maker and format culture,
where start-ups are using crowd funding, open source designs and innovation incubators to jump-
start the subsequent disruptive product or technology.
The Chinese government’s push to reform its state-owned enterprises via encouraging mixed
ownership, equity investment by non-state capital and managerial reform, is also an indication that
innovation has no longer only prolonged to the private sector however is also impacting China’s
public sector.
Opportunities Rating Threats Rating

1. Upgrade value chains 5 1. Intellectual 5

Property
2. Chinese government’s push to 3
reform its state-owned
enterprises

2.3 Political Environment Analysis:

Government Regulations:
Both formal and informal rules, which firms have to abide by, influence the country. Many human
beings claim that the political pressure is the most unsettled force. Over the previous few years, the
government focused on the improvement of e-commerce (PEST Analysis, 2015).
Legal Issues:
The legal framework for e-commerce is nonetheless in its early stage. China has little experience
for drafting e-commerce rules for matters like intellectual property rights protection and tax. There
aren’t any rules assisting the privacy, awareness of digital signatures, consumer rights and
validation of electronic contracts yet (PEST Analysis).
Human Rights:
Human Rights Practices and International Religious Freedom Reports noted China's well-
documented and in continuing abuses of human rights violation of internationally identified norms,
stemming both from the authorities' intolerance of dissent and the inadequacy of legal safeguards
for primary freedoms.
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Political Risk:
China is especially hazardous with the concern to political risk. The possibility of nationalization
of industries should be considered. Similarly, there are the risks of confiscation, expropriation,
currency inconvertibility and contract repudiation. Currency devaluation and rampant inflation are
possible scenarios in many countries, wreaking havoc on the adequacy of insurance limits, as one
of many attainable problems. There is additional risk to company personnel of personal harm or
kidnapping, and threat to the firm of extortion attempts. This makes it difficult for companies
operating in China to know precisely what the regulations are (China Political Risk Management,
2009).
Political Stability:
The degree of foreign enterprise endeavor in China after the Tiananmen Square massacre has
declined dramatically in many areas, consisting of tourism and foreign investment. While
companies not already involved in China are wary of committing investment to China, foreign
countries already involved in investment activities apparently are waiting for a quiet period in
which economic growth will start again and consider that China will not expel overseas investors
in the meantime. There is not much likelihood that extant joint ventures and foreign manufacturing
plants will be closed below the current regime, but political balance is nevertheless a major question
to foreign traders (China Political Instability, 2010).
At the same time, China's economic development and reform since 1978 has increased dramatically
the lives of hundreds of millions of Chinese, maximized social mobility, and expanded the scope
occupation, religion, privacy, labor rights, and coercive birth of personal freedom.

Opportunities Rating Threats Rating

1. Economic development 5 1. Political risk 5
2. Government regulations 3 2. Legal issues/ 4
3. Human rights 2
4. Political stability 1

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2.4 Competitive Environment Analysis

China is a very competitive marketplace with lots of small and medium scale enterprises in most
of the industries. The leather industry is also very competitive with lots of artificial leather
manufacturers at very reasonable prices. They are not only serving the local markets but also
dominating the international markets. After the beginning of industrialization in China, government
has facilitated the leather industry to be more productive and cost effective. Since then, the textile
producers didn’t have to look back and is progressing at a very fast pace. But the main concern
remains as the leather products are damaging the environment creating lot of chemical wastes and
harmful substances distorting the natural environmental balance. Most of the Chinese leather
industry use cat and dog skins as their raw material sources, as for Faux leather most of them use
Microfiber Vegan leather, PVC leather, PU (Polyurethane), Synthetic extra (Weissman,2016).

Pinatex is a very exclusive product, using innovative and environment friendly technology, which
is not yet widely available in the Chinese leather market. This will be a source of competitive
advantage for Ananas Anam but they have to devise strategies to fight with the low cost artificial
leathers and processed genuine leather to create a new sustainable market for them.

We used Porter’s Five Forces Model to determine the competitive scenario for Pinatex to survive
the Competition in the Chinese leather Industry.

Porter’s Five Forces model is a strategic tool designed to give a global overview, rather than a
detailed business analysis technique. It helps review the strengths of a market position, based on
five key forces. (Adamkasi,2017)

To apply Porter’s Five Forces, you need to work through these questions for each area:

• Force 1: Threat of New Entry

• Force 2: Buyer Power

• Force 3: Threat of Substitution

• Force 4: Supplier Power

• Force 5: Competitive Rivalry

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Threat of new entry: Asian leather market is known for its raw material availability which makes
it easier to obtain the sources of raw materials. Moreover, due to technological advancements in
China, there are substitute products for original leather such as cheaper artificial leather produced
by different companies. So, for Pinatex this can be a huge challenge but due to people’s awareness
against dangerous artificial products and love for the vegan products, Pinatex also have enormous
potentials as there isn’t much vegan leather producers in the Chinese market.

Buyer power: Most of the Chinese people are middle class and they look for daily items more than
luxury items. As most of the luxury items are made in fashion houses so buyer have a very little
information about the uses of the vegan leather which is a bit expensive. As a new genre of product,
buyers have very little knowledge about the demand, actual market price and the supply cost. This
makes the bargaining power a bit weak for them.

Threat of substitution: The threat of substitute products in leather industry is very high. There are
tons of cheaper substitutes for leather products. But very few vegan, cruelty free and nature friendly
products, are in the market. So Pinatex can have a shot in that portion. But there are lots of top
brands for Luxury items who have a large portion of brand loyal customers which can be hard to
capture.

Supplier power: The bargaining power of suppliers of suppliers are strong when the resources are
special and only from some specific areas. As for Pinatex, china has a good supply of pineapple
leaves but there isn’t any processing center for the fibers. Exporting can result in the prices to go
up high. Over the last decade China has become one of the largest hid and skin producer followed
by Brazil, India and USA. So, in that case Pinatex needs to be more resourceful.

Competitive Rivalry: For pinatex the threat for a substitute product is very high. As mentioned
earlier there are tons of artificial leather items available in Chinese market at very cheaper prices.
So it can be a bit of challenge of Pinatex without the right strategy to penetrate the market.

Summarization: After assessing Porter’s Five Forces, there are some things which are good for
Pinatex and some are bad. There are some companies in china who have a good market share and
these are the competitions for Pinatex.

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 Competitors Competing products
Shenzhen Unaisi Leather Goods Co., Ltd. Synthetic Leather, Cork Leather

Hangzhou Sylvia Import and Export Co., Ltd. Microfiber Leather, Synthetic Leather

Versse Bag Factory Nubuck Leather.

These companies are offering artificial leathers and nearly vegan leather at very cheaper prices. As
these leathers give more finished looks and are produced in more variety than Pinatex, pineapple
leaf leather, these are much more acceptable to the local customers. In other words, Chinese leather
industry doesn’t have pure vegan leather and other materials have some side effects to some extent.
Day by day people are choosing better lifestyle with eco-friendlier product. In that extent, with
proper market research and with the power of marketing and promotion, Pinatex can have good
chances of capturing a good share of Chinese leather market.

3.0 Market Entry Strategy:

A market entry strategy is the way of distributing a company’s products or services in the market
in which the company wants to operate. The strategy depends on all the environmental factors of a
market or country in which the business wants to function. There are several macro-environmental
variables among which we have focused and analyzed the economic, political, technological,
cultural and competitive environment for Pinatex to start their business in China. China is a very
competitive market with many hostile conditions for foreign companies to start off. There are
several trade barriers such as bureaucratic government system, red tapes, violations of rules and
regulation and non-compliance with the international laws and company acts. However, the other
side of the coin tells the story of opportunities with rising economic growth, technological
advancements, efficient labor sources and access to different sources of raw materials at
competitive prices. The Chinese market is so big that it offers a huge customer base with other
breaks for investments in different sectors.

Joint Venture: Since, Carmen Hijosa wants to step into the leather industry of China with an
environment friendly technology of extracting fibers from pineapple leaves and transforming them
into vegan leather, Pinatex, the main entry options are: export-based, manufacturing based and
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relationship based entries. The most feasible form of entry depending on the analyzed environments
is the manufacturing –based or foreign direct investment (FDI). By means of FDI, the equity based
joint venture (JV) will be most appropriate as it will be a combined ownership of Ananas Anam
with a local leather manufacturing firm in China. “A JV can be defined as an association of two or
more parties to achieve a common business objective. Each party contributes certain resources and,
depending on what is contributed, usually assumes as share of the risks and rewards resulting from
the undertaking.” (Gesteland & Seyk, 2002,64).

Benefits: This strategy will offer the benefits of rapid entry into the market utilizing the existing
resources such as premises, workers and capital of the local firm. There will be more finance
available for the firm to successfully implement its strategies. The risk of the business will be
shared and the competencies of the two individual firms can be brought together to create a more
efficient third company with the synergy effects (1+1= more than 2). The local firm will have an
in-depth knowledge of the market with authentic market intelligence data that will help Ananas
Anam to promote its new product, Pinatex, into the Chinese market. China is a culturally sensitive
nation with many government restrictions, thus the expertise of the local firm will help to better
understand the Chinese culture and overcome the government barriers. On the other hand, while
operating as a joint venture, the new company can enjoy several benefits from the government such
as tax cuts, entry into restricted areas of investment avoid nationalization of the firm in the future.
The JV will also give a competitive edge to Ananas Anam in contending other local established
leather manufactures in China in terms of costs, distribution, promotion and networking. The
unique selling point (USP) of Pinatex in China will be its environment friendly manufacturing
process without creating any form of harm to the nature. The company can capitalize on this feature
of the product to attract customers those who are environmentally concerned and differentiate itself
from the local manufacturers those who are polluting the nature. Moreover, the innovation is
completely new in the industry and will be appreciated and considered for purchase by
environmentally aware consumers.

Drawbacks: Apart from the several benefits of joint venture operation with a Chinese local firm,
there are drawbacks too such as sharing of profits and technical know-how or technology. Chinese
companies more competitive than collaborative which imposes greater risks of losing trade secrets.
Nonetheless, there might be management disputes between the two firms in the long run which
may lead to end of partnership contracts.

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In any form of market entry strategy there will be some negative sides but we have compared with
other entry modes and concluded that joint venture has more advantages in entering the Chinese
market with Pinatex. Other entry modes such as export (direct or indirect) will not be cost effective
and the company will fail to attract the price subtle Chinese buyers. Licensing could have been an
alternative but it poses more risks than joint venture as we found examples of many violations of
proprietary rights of patents, trademarks, copyrights etc. in the past. Thus comparing all the
possible entry strategies and macro-environmental variables, we are suggesting Ananas Anam to
go for the joint venture operation to launch the vegan leather, Pinatex, in China.

4.0 Conclusion:

The Chinese economy is a potential market for investment but the market environment is complex
from different dimensions. From international business perspective, it is a very competitive market
with many hostile conditions for foreign companies to start off. China is especially hazardous with
the concern of political risk. The possibility of nationalization of industries should be considered.
Similarly, there are the risks of confiscation, expropriation, currency inconvertibility and contract
repudiation. There are several trade barriers such as bureaucratic government system, red tapes,
violations of rules and regulation and non-compliance with the international laws and company
acts. China is technologically flourished market and local industry is protected by the government
from external competition. Leather industry of China is well developed because of availability of
animal skin. Artificial leather like Microfiber Vegan leather, PVC leather, PU (Polyurethane) etc.
are available as low cost look-alike material. On the other hand, it is a country of rising economic
growth, technological advancement, efficient labor and access to different sources of raw materials
at competitive prices. Chinese market is so big that it offers a huge customer base that indicates
opportunity of investment. Considering all this aspect, joint venture entry mode would be the best
option for Pinatex to enter the Chinese market overcoming the local trade barriers to restrict solely
foreign companies. Joint Venture will also give a competitive edge to Ananas Anam in contending
other local established leather manufactures in China in terms of costs, distribution, promotion and
networking.

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