A brand recognised globally for its combi-steamers, it is keeping its sights on wanting “to give the best solution to the local market”; to quote Vice President, Mr Thomas Stütz. Hence, RATIONAL Cooking Systems Pte Ltd was set up in Singapore as a home to the Asia-Pacific region and to be more visible to local customers.
Mr Markus Paschmann, Chief Sales & Marketing Officer told us that “the two most challenging items to cook with a combisteamer were Chinese style pork belly and rice especially when there are more than 20 types of rice in Japan!”Light-hearted it may seem but it was a crucial insight especially when more chefs in this region are eager to discover new cooking technologies. With the ASEAN market showing +16% growth and contributing to 13% of RATIONAL’ s total sales in 2015; setting up the Singapore office and application kitchen at the German Centre made perfect sense.
RATIONAL strives to over fulfill customers’ expectations by focusing on true needs beyond costs – through constant quality and constant service, said Mr Paschmann. It also recognises the culinary diversity of the ASEAN region thus the “RATIONAL research and development department from Germany will be working closely with our application chef in Singapore to develop ASEAN dishes to be cooked in our SelfCookingCenter® 5 Senses”, explained Ms. Millie Chan, Managing Director, RATIONAL Cooking Systems Pte Ltd. Continuous experiments by its Corporate Chefs to achieve the optimum cooking path have resulted in a Southeast Asian cuisine cookbook to better support customers in the region. Chefs can now cook popular local dishes such as Indonesian Ayam Betutu, Malaysian Beef Rendang, Singapore Chili Crab and Thai Beef Salad in any kitchen complemented with RATIONAL’s cooking technologies.
The Singapore office officially opened in January 2016 and has garnered positive responses; does RATIONAL plan to establish similar offices in other Southeast Asian countries? Mr Paschmann says that this office is positioned as the Headquarters (HQ) for this region where more research and development, test, trials and customer experience sessions will be held. Duplicating the model elsewhere is highly unlikely because the HQ is set to grow alongside its dealers plus Singapore’s strategic location and well-developed infrastructure makes it an ideal avenue to engage with customers and dealers.
RATIONAL Cooking Systems Pte Ltd (a subsidiary of RATIONAL AG)
25 International Business Park, #01-51/52 German Centre,
Singapore, 609916
Phone +65 6809 5850
