Dream big, live smart with smanos – PART 1

In 2013, smart home technology brand smanos was incepted in Hoofddorp, which sits in the picturesque outskirts of Amsterdam. Harnessing cutting-edge design and DIY usability concepts and ergonomics, smanos brings the ultimate simplicity in wireless smart home and home security user experience to households worldwide. Delivering more than just a sense of security, smanos also ensures user-definable comfort and convenience, along with mobile accessibility. In its pursuit for perfection in human-centric research and design, smanos invests heavily in product and market development, and partners with top-notch hardware and software developers and industrial designers in Europe and the U.S. for greater smart home integration.

While smanos is a relatively new smart home technology brand on the market, the forces behind it are anything but. A brainchild between Chuango Security Technology and Chuango Europe, smanos embodies a decade-long commitment to minimalistic design and system reliability. Marketed and serviced from Amsterdam, smanos is Chuango’s security, monitoring and automation solution portfolio for the global market, targeting especially retail channels that carry premium consumer electronics and connected devices.

WHERE IT ALL BEGAN
The mother company Chuango was established in 2001 by Ken Li and his late father Lee. It specializes in radio frequency technology and wireless smart home systems, ranging from DIY security and home automation to energy and health management. The company is rapidly expanding its solution portfolio and global partner network, with products and systems researched and developed in Fuzhou and Taipei, designed in Shenzhen and Amsterdam, manufactured and packaged in Dongguan, and brought to life worldwide.

Since 2010, the company has experienced triple-digit sales growth year-on-year. Europe and the U.S. have been the most significant contributors, but the momentum is also picking up in many other markets. Then came another stepping stone—IFSEC International 2013; Chuango outperformed other multinational conglomerates in the alarm industry and went home with Product of the Year in the Intruder Alarm System or Exterior Deterrent category. After winning that award, Li had the ambition, vision and plans to build Chuango’s own brand, so he recruited long-term business partner Brian Borghardt to further pursue that development path.

A born entrepreneur, Borghardt eagerly joined the fast expanding Chuango family in 2013 as General Manager for Chuango and smanos Europe, after having distributed Chuango products in the Benelux market for a few years. “I am really excited to be part of a dynamic, creative, design-centric team,” Borghardt said. “In joining hands with Chuango’s global product and business development teams, Chuango Europe is committed to serving our OEM partners in the region, and is looking to grow our smanos brand business with compatible distributors and retailers.” His team is complete with experienced sales and marketing, technical support and logistics personnel from the consumer electronics and IT industries.

The European headquarters—a US$1.4- million, multifunctional facility—is a design, sales and marketing, technical support and logistics center aimed to serve Chuango’s existing and new partners and clients in the EMEA region. The investment not only facilitates the integration and optimization of resources, operations and competitiveness, but also helps drive global branding and marketing efforts, said Hayden Hsu, Director of Global Brand Development for Chuango and smanos, and General Manager of Chuango Taiwan. The logistics center is located in Hoofddorp, just outside of Amsterdam and a five-minute drive from Schiphol Airport. “The Netherlands is the hub of Europe, and an open and accommodating country. The superior conditions in talent, taxation and logistics make it an ideal place for investment,” Li said. The assistance and high- quality services from the Dutch Foreign Investment Agency and Amsterdam in Business have not gone unnoticed. “They have guided us with courtesy and efficiency. We really appreciate their input.”