Meet Nick Jung, Sales General Manager for Asia Packaging Division

In 2012, Nick Jung was the sole Sherwin-Williams Packaging Coatings employee in Korea. After more than doubling business in the country within five years, moving to Thailand to oversee Southeast Asia operations and again doubling business, Jung now oversees operations for all of Asia as the Sales General Manager for Sherwin-Williams Packaging in the region.

Jung credits this exponential growth to changing business models.

“I was able to play an instrumental role in launching Korea’s direct business model,” explained Jung. “We localized our approach and set up a business center, customer technical center (CTC) and toll manufacturing. We nearly tripled our business in the country in five years as a result of moving away from our agency approach and toward direct business.”

Jung then moved to Thailand to try to improve and grow Southeast Asia operations. Again, he took the approach of setting up local service, including a CTC.

“Our technical service coverage is a differentiator for us – we’re the only packaging supplier with a CTC in the region,” said Jung. “We have a very experienced and knowledgeable technical service team. I always proudly say we have people in Asia in every country. We are here to support you."

Jung finds this to be a winning formula for the region.  

“The Asia market is really customer focused, and we’re able to deliver on that,” he said. “Whether there is an issue [at a customer location] or not, we check in. We target weekly touchpoints. We spend about 50% of our time working internally and 50% of our time with our customers. The Sherwin-Williams Asia Packaging team is covering over 300 key accounts across 12 countries in Asia – it’s no small effort, but we care about our customers’ success.”

When Local Is Globalized

The Sherwin-Williams Packaging team in Asia may be focused on offering personalized, local service, but the reality of customer operations makes even local business global.

“Fifty percent of business in the region is related to the export market,” explained Jung. “The local [service] but global exporting is unique to this market. It makes it a global operation.”

Already well acclimated to overcoming language barriers and cultural differences due to the 12 different countries in the Asia region, the Sherwin-Williams Packaging team is equipped to help customers navigate their coatings businesses across borders.

“Our One-Sherwin and One-Packaging approach really allows us to tackle this unique business case,” said Jung. “This is our advantage – we don’t have regional silos.”

Being able to work country-to-country seamlessly is even more important due to varying regulations. With customers not only having to comply with their own country’s rules but those of where they are trying to sell, the environment is very complex. The depth of regulatory expertise across the globe with Sherwin-Williams is essential in this dynamic.

“Customers may have limited information on global movement of regulations, but we’re helping and sharing information about the technology needed to export,” said Jung. “We’re delivering them new technology proactively because the market is changing [elsewhere].”

While the business models of Asian countries and the internal diversity of the region create a multifaceted market for Jung and his team, at the end of the day, he points out that it boils down to relating to one another on the simplest level:

“I know how to communicate with the customer – I love it,” he said. “There are many ways to communicate with the customer and develop the relationship as a human being.” 

Future Growth

While the Asia Packaging team has seen enormous growth under Jung’s guidance, he sees nothing but opportunity in front of them. There are a lot of emerging markets across the 12 countries the team supports. These countries’ gross domestic products (GDPs) are growing fast, presenting a lot of opportunity to grow market share.

“Their populations are very young,” explained Jung. “Lifestyles are changing. They’re [the countries] developing. They are drinking more, eating more. As their GDPs grow, our business can grow with them.”

Beyond sales growth, Jung also wants to grow recognition of Sherwin-Williams as a brand across Asia.

“In the next 10 years, I want to make Sherwin-Williams as well-known in Asia as it is in the U.S. and Canada,” he said.”

And with Jung at the wheel, the team is well on its way to achieving this goal. 

NICK AT A GLANCE

Title: Sales General Manager, Asia, Packaging

Time With Sherwin-Williams: 12 years

Education: Ph.D. (ABD) and master’s in industrial chemistry, MBA in marketing, and bachelor’s in chemical engineering

The Packaging Team in Asia is focused on offering personalized, local service.