Report: Company visit of the Chamber to Orange Creatives (Guangzhou) - Arthur Tideman

A visit to our valued corporate member of the Benelux Chamber of Commerce in South China, Orange Creatives. An originally Dutch company in China with its main office in Guangzhou. Orange Creatives, also called “OC”, also have offices in The Netherlands and USA. The China-based office and operations are headed by Arthur Tideman who is Co-Founder of Orange Creatives and Ask4Me Group.

Orange Creatives is a product design and development company that focusses on creating success through design. With modern technologies, OC strives to design and develop new product ideas into real innovative products that make a difference in the market. Focusing on new products, OC is striving to look at the evolution of products. What a product now is and what it will be in the future. 

Robotics
With developing Robots being a part of the scope, Orange Creatives is leading in innovative product development. Within the company visit mentioning a packaging Robot of a client that also sustainably uses paper. Already the second generation of Robots has been developed for this client. 

OC Care
Products developed for everything you find in the bathroom. A product development segment about beauty care products, but also electronic toothbrushes and shavers. 

DIY Outdoor
With “do it yourself” outdoor power tools, mobility products, apparel and devices used outdoors. It is a wide range of products very interesting for Chinese manufacturers that let their products be designed by OC. With highlighting a question from the audience that asked about a product if it was a flashlight. However, Arthur explained this product to be a water purifier. A device that can pull water out of any pool, purifies it and makes it directly drinkable. 

OC in-home
A product segment where OC is designing and developing all kinds of IoT and smart home products. Products such as smart locks, which are at the moment in increasing demand, safety devices for gas infrastructures that will detect leaks and shut automatically off when there is a danger, and air treatment devices about heating, cooling and purifying. Products which are at this moment designed and created a lot by Orange Creatives.  

And more. 

Sustainable materials
With hundreds of products designed and developed, Orange Creatives has to develop materials that also suits the product. With innovation and sustainability in mind, Orange Creatives presented its strategy to contribute to a cleaner and more sustainable world. With the United Nations having sustainable development goals, Orange Creatives has the smaller version to contribute to the same goals. 

Sustainable and green materials are the future. With Arthur mentioning the increased waste by the increase of population worldwide, waste materials and especially products will be a problem that needs solutions. With more people housed at the world, housing and the area we are living in will be having importance. Where at this moment in cities focusing on housing as many people as possible at one place, we want to focus to make it green, comfortable and nice place to live. 

During the company visit in Guangzhou, Bart Krijgsman provided a presentation about the importance of sustainable materials. By informing the attendees about the latest numbers and facts in terms of the market share, cost-effectiveness and scope of usage. With certain clients of Orange Creatives requesting more greener materials, OC created resources to be able to develop and deliver products with sustainable materials. 

Bio-based vs. Biodegradable
Bio-based and biodegradable are often mixed up with each other. A bio-based material is made from a biological source, while biodegradable means that is will also compost within nature. Bio-based would not mean that it would also be compostable, while a biodegradable material would not directly indicate is also bio-based. 

PLA
Bart Krijgsman mentioned in his presentation a material that is at this moment very available and used in their products developments. This material is called, PLA (Polylactic acid). Bart explained that the main component to make PLA is starch. Which is found in corn and sugarcane, both natural resources. 

Questions asked
Members asked questions during the company visit such as:

- Do you not think that using food (corn and sugarcane) for PLA consumer products is a bit controversial because a big part of the world still is not having enough food? While this material contains food. 
- Are Chinese factories willing to change their materials to sustainable materials?
- How is the cost-effectiveness of PLA compared to normal plastics used now?
- In how long PLA is composted into nature?

See the movies for the answers.

We, from the Benelux Chamber of Commerce South China, would like to thank your corporate member Orange Creatives to welcome the members of the Chamber and to provide such a quality presentation. 

Also, we would like to express our appreciation for the arrangement of the networking drinks afterwards.