News brief
Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow congratulates Erik Thomaeus at the opening in 2019 of the factory in Bukit Minyak, Simpang Ampat, Penang.
Why Scandinavian IBS placed its production in Malaysia
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candinavian IBS is a Swedenbased company involved in the manufacturing of Industrial Building System and one of SIBS Group’s five companies, is producing housing modules and peripherals in a factor y located in Penang in Malaysia. Swedish media Dagens Industri asked Erik Thomaeus, CEO of SIBS Group on why Malaysia was chosen. According to him, this was already the plan before he and his brother started the company in 2016. “The whole idea of creating a construction system and manufacturing homes industrially was born in par t from Malaysia highlighting that they wanted to be bigger in industrial construction processes and production,” Erik Thomaeus explained. “Through my previous com16 ScandAsia • April 2021
pany, I have been active in the country since the early 2000s and I have always thought it was easy to do business there. We have a friendly attitude towards foreign companies and our presence is seen as a way for the economy to grow,” he says to Dagens Industri. Such a simple thing as everyone speaking English is something that Erik Thomaeus sees as an enormous advantage.The Malaysians also have a high work ethic and see great pride in their work and over the years “There are many talented suppliers to work with, both large internationally known companies but also a plethora of fine smaller family companies. Since we work with many different types of components, we have, for example, several local mechanical workshops as
Erik Thomaeus explaining the benefits of prefab building construction. subcontractors. Seventy percent of the material we use comes from Malaysia, 20 percent from the rest of ASEAN, while the rest is Swedish or German.” “Then we export 100 percent of what we produce in Malaysia to Sweden. As it can be a bit cumbersome to impor t and then expor t again, we have received help from the Malaysian Agency for Investment Development (MIDA) to have a simplified customs clearance process.”
