Ready to Expand? How Your Business Can Benefit from a Chinese Subsidiary
In this short Woodburn Academy session, Kristina Koehler-Coluccia runs through the advantages of setting up a subsidiary in China rather than continuing to sell into the market from outside it. It takes about seven minutes.
About the speaker
Kristina Koehler-Coluccia is Head of Business Advisory at Woodburn Accountants & Advisors. She has spent more than two decades helping foreign companies set up and run their operations in China and Hong Kong, and she leads the firm's Woodburn Academy sessions.
What this session covers
Access to a very large domestic customer base
Access to a deep and increasingly specialised local workforce
Policy and incentive treatment that favours locally registered companies
Supply chain efficiencies that come from being close to your suppliers
What a local presence changes for credibility with Chinese customers and partners
Why this matters if you are expanding into China
Selling into China from outside it and operating inside it are two different businesses. Once you need to invoice locally, employ people, hold intellectual property or take payment in renminbi, the absence of a legal entity starts to cost you deals rather than just convenience. The counterweight is that a subsidiary brings registered capital decisions, monthly bookkeeping, an annual audit and payroll obligations from day one, so it is worth being honest about what is actually triggering the move.
If you are at that point, the practical route runs through China company registration, with an employer of record as an interim option and local recruitment once you are ready to build a team.
Watch the full session
Thinking about setting up in China?
Woodburn Accountants & Advisors helps foreign companies register and run entities in China and Hong Kong, from company registration and trademark protection through to accounting, payroll, tax and audit. If this session has raised questions about your own plans, get in touch with our team.
