The China Experts: Leanne Dal Santo of Surface Measurement Systems on Why Setting Up in China Was Easier Than Europe
- Aug 3
- 3 min read
Updated: 7 days ago
In this episode of The China Experts, Kristina Koehler-Coluccia is joined by Leanne Dal Santo, Director of Finance at Surface Measurement Systems. The headline from this conversation surprises almost everyone who hears it: SMS incorporated in China and in a European country at the same time, and China finished first. Leanne's explanation of why is a useful corrective to the assumption that China is the difficult market.
Who is Leanne Dal Santo?
Leanne Dal Santo is Director of Finance at Surface Measurement Systems, a UK manufacturer of research and development instruments used in scientific laboratories and academia around the world, with customers in pharmaceuticals, health and beauty and other research-led sectors. The instruments are built in the UK and distributed globally. SMS has worked with a Chinese distributor for several years and has now incorporated locally to put its own technical people alongside that distributor. She joins The China Experts at the very start of that journey.
What this episode covers
Why a company with a good Chinese distributor still decided it needed its own presence
The gap between selling mid-range instruments and selling the science behind the premium range
How a structured checklist and fortnightly meetings got the incorporation finished ahead of schedule
Why the parallel European incorporation took longer and required someone to fly out in person
Chinese corporate banking, key tokens, translation gaps and anti-money-laundering documentation
The plan to relocate a UK national for the first year to transfer corporate culture
How SMS framed the move to its exclusive distributor as a win-win rather than a takeover
Why a distributor was not enough on its own
Leanne is careful to say the distributor relationship works and is not being replaced. The limitation is technical. A distributor sells the mid-range instruments well, but is less likely to spot when a customer conversation should become a package of higher-value equipment, because that requires understanding the science rather than the product list. SMS had been flying Chinese distributor staff to the UK for training, which became both harder and more expensive, and staff turnover meant that knowledge kept walking out of the door.
The answer was to put its own scientifically trained people in the market, working alongside the distributor in customer meetings. That is a common maturity point for exporters, and it is usually the moment a legal entity becomes necessary. China company registration is what turns an export relationship into a local operation that can employ, invoice and support customers directly.
The incorporation that finished early
Asked what went wrong during the set-up, Leanne struggles to name anything. What she credits is structure: a roadmap, a document checklist, a timetable and scheduled meetings every two weeks so that nothing was quietly missed. The process finished faster than the company had planned for. At the same time SMS was incorporating in a European country, and that took longer and required flying someone out to open the bank account in person, because it could not be done remotely.
The finance side was still the hardest part, and Leanne is honest about it. Chinese corporate online banking involves key tokens, legacy browser requirements and translation that only goes so far, and she is clear the company could not have navigated it without someone who reads Chinese and understands finance. There is also anti-money-laundering scrutiny on both ends, which means having the corporate structure, documentation and a defensible reason for every transaction. Ongoing cloud accounting and financial reporting and annual tax and audit support are what keep that manageable once the entity is live.
People first, then culture
SMS's staffing plan is deliberate. Rather than parachuting someone in for short visits, Leanne wants a genuine relocation of a UK national for roughly the first year, supported by Chinese nationals who have already worked inside the UK business. Her reasoning is not about nationality but about corporate culture: local hires need to understand how the company operates and what it values, and the fastest way to transmit that is through people who have lived it. Local hiring follows once that foundation exists.
Relocating someone means dealing with residence and work permissions, which is where China visa application support matters, and building the local team afterwards is a question of recruitment in China. For companies that want people in place before the entity is fully operational, employer-of-record hiring bridges the gap, and cloud payroll services handle the monthly obligations once staff are on the books.
Watch the full interview
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