Overall, AmCham China member companies in the consumer products industry are more optimistic than foreign business in other sectors. 70 percent of survey respondents forecast positive revenue for their China operations in 2015 compared to the average of 55 percent. A majority of respondents view their company’s unique branding as a significant competitive advantage over domestic competitors and almost two-thirds plan to enhance digitalization of sales, marketing, distribution and customer relationship going forward.
Nevertheless challenges remain. Inconsistent or unclear laws and regulations remains the top business challenge followed by increasing labor costs. For those companies that plan to increase investment in 2016 at a lower rate than 2015, a majority responded that this was due primarily to an expectation of slower growth in China or the existence of faster-growing markets in other geographies.
Key points of this Report
- 92 percent of respondents in the consumer products industry have not moved capacity out of China in the past three years and are not planning to do so in the next three years.
- 71 percent of survey respondents report that the top human resources challenge in attracting the right talent in China is that expectations of salary/package are too high.
- 93 percent describe their primary business objective in China for 2016 as growing in core business (e.g. with current products, services, customer segments.)
This report distills industry-specific data from the full 2016 BCS Report, reflecting the business climate for this specific industry.