Your one-stop shop for market entry
Opening new markets for capital goods.
From your first customer to your own local operation. We take care of it.
For manufacturers, importers and dealers in capital goods: trucks, trailers, cranes, terminal and cargo-handling equipment, and heavy equipment. Serving logistics, ports, transport, petrochemicals and non-residential construction.
You rarely open a new market from behind a desk. You need people who know the market, speak the language, open the right doors and build a local operation that strengthens your business.
Ei Openers is your one-stop shop for the entire process: hands-on business development and the local services that support it. Local partners, accounting, HR, recruitment for key roles and premises. One point of contact, one plan, with seasoned experts who have done it before. The Ei Openers team brings a network and experience on every continent.
We work alongside you in the market, with your customers and as you build your local team.
Does this sound familiar?
The market looks promising. Customers are asking, competitors are already there and the growth figures make sense. But you have no local people, no network and no time to build it alongside your existing business. These are the common stumbling blocks.
No way in
You know there are customers, but you do not know who makes the decisions, which brands they use or how to establish credibility.
Everything needs arranging at once
A legal entity, an accountant, payroll, premises and service support. All at a distance, in another country, under different rules. It consumes your management capacity.
A local operation that becomes a burden
The wrong local leader, too little entrepreneurial drive and poor control of service. After an enthusiastic start, the operation costs more than it delivers.
Grow your network with a culture that fits your business and your local market.
An operation that simply copies its parent company's culture can clash with local customers and employees. One that goes its own way entirely can lose its connection with the parent company. Either way, effectiveness suffers.
Results come from connecting the two: a culture that fits both your company and local customers, employees and partners. We make this a priority from the start, when selecting partners, recruiting the local leader and building the team.
We also select day-to-day partners, from accountants and HR providers to service partners, for their fit with your desired company culture and local norms and values. This makes working together smoother and more effective for you, your local team and your customers.
Expansion that strengthens your business, with greater effectiveness and better results.
Create the market first. Build the organisation alongside it.
The conventional route is to organise first and sell later. That takes time and money before you have a single customer. We overlap the work: recruitment starts while we visit customers, sales begin while the entity is being established, and local training starts while the premises are being fitted out.
Overlapping phases creates speed while keeping you in control. After each phase, you decide whether the next investment is justified.
Growth markets: ports, rail, multimodal transport and logistics
We work where multimodal transport and logistics flows are growing. Our team has a network and experience on every continent: in the ports, logistics corridors and multimodal hubs where goods flows are expanding and a strong local presence makes the difference.
Rail is playing a growing role in these markets. If you supply equipment, trucks, trailers or services to terminals, inland hubs and transport operators, you need to be where road, water and rail meet.
Central and Eastern Europe
- Ports: growing cargo volumes on the Baltic and Black Seas
- Rail: new corridors, including routes towards Asia
- Multimodal: inland terminals connecting road, water and rail
- Logistics: distribution centres at the heart of Europe
Africa
- Ports: new and expanding container ports along the coasts
- Rail: new lines linking ports with inland regions
- Multimodal: corridors connecting ports, rail and roads
- Logistics: hubs linking Europe, Africa and the wider world
South America
- Ports: growing export and cargo-handling capacity
- Rail: investment in freight rail to inland regions
- Multimodal: connections between production areas, rail and ports
- Logistics: fleet renewal and more professional transport operations
Our team also has a network and experience on every continent. Looking at a different growth market? We can explore who we know there.
Where engineering and business meet
- Products: trucks, trailers and bodies, cranes, terminal and cargo-handling equipment, material handling and heavy equipment
- Logistics and transport applications: fleet owners, transport operators and logistics providers
- Port and multimodal applications: terminals, rail, short-sea shipping, inland waterways and inland terminals
- Petrochemical and energy applications: refineries, chemical clusters, offshore and onshore operations
- Non-residential construction applications: industrial buildings, distribution centres, terminals and infrastructure
- Always included: service, parts and aftersales
Comprehensive support, across the whole operation
You do not need six separate advisers in a country you barely know. We find, select and coordinate local partners for recruitment, accounting, HR, legal matters and premises. You keep one point of contact and one plan. We arrange the rest with local experts and partners we know and trust. We carefully match day-to-day partners to your desired company culture and local norms and values.
Hands-on market development
Identifying target accounts, visiting customers with you, arranging demonstrations and pilots, and finding launch customers. Turning market potential into a pipeline.
The right network from day one
Commercial partners, service partners and introductions to the people who matter. Selected for their fit with your company culture and local norms and values.
Legal entity, tax and administration
Selecting an accountant, tax adviser and lawyer. Establishing the local entity, banking, insurance and registrations.
Employment arrangements that work
A local HR partner, employment terms, payroll, job profiles and an employment framework suited to the market.
The people who will make it work
Country manager, sales team, service manager and initial technicians. Selected for their expertise, cultural fit and motivations.
Location and fit-out
Region and site selection, property agents, lease, workshop, warehouse, office and IT.
Seasoned experts. Local roots. Every continent.
Our experts have built importer, dealer and service organisations in these sectors themselves. They know the market, speak the language, understand purchasing at terminals and fleet owners, and have the network to move quickly. The Ei Openers team brings a network and experience on every continent, including the market you have in mind.
Our added value lies in the people behind the operation: its leadership, culture and the local team's motivations. Alongside market share and processes, we consider mastery, autonomy, fairness, connection and status. This helps build a local organisation with entrepreneurial drive that strengthens your wider business.
Customer-focused, full-service and entrepreneurial. With the working culture of a strong dealership.
Our approach
From initial exploration to an independently operating local business, in six phases followed by ongoing support. Phases overlap where this creates speed. Each phase ends with a decision point.
Exploration and local infrastructure
Objective: establish whether the country offers commercial potential while building a network that allows you to move quickly.
Map the market, logistics clusters, terminals and major fleet owners. Select commercial and service partners, an HR partner, an accountant and a lawyer. Assess locations and costs.
Outcome: an initial market assessment, target accounts, shortlisted partners and locations, an indicative cost structure and a go, adjust or no-go decision.
Prepare the organisation and recruit key roles
Objective: find the people and partners who will build the local business.
Recruit and select a country manager, sales team, service manager and initial technicians. Define job profiles, employment terms, management style and cultural fit. Arrange a service partner or interim service solution.
Outcome: a selected local leader, key hires, an employment framework and an organisational structure for the first two years.
Open the market and visit customers
Objective: turn market potential into a concrete sales pipeline. Establish your brand with the customers who matter.
Visit key accounts, map fleets and the installed base, understand replacement cycles and buying processes, identify service challenges, prepare demonstrations and pilots, and find launch customers.
Outcome: dozens of relevant customer conversations, qualified opportunities, potential launch customers and an evidence-based sales forecast.
Legal entity, location and fit-out
Objective: establish your legal and physical presence once there is sufficient commercial traction.
Set up the local entity, accountant, banking, insurance, payroll and tax registrations. Finalise the location, lease, workshop, warehouse, office, IT and local suppliers.
Outcome: a local operation ready from both a legal and physical perspective.
Build the operating model
Objective: turn the legal entity into an organisation that can serve customers.
Set up sales, quotation and order processes, CRM, parts, service scheduling, warranty, escalation, stock, service vehicles, reporting and KPIs. Make responsibilities clear: who sells, delivers, calls the customer, resolves breakdowns and takes overall responsibility?
Outcome: workable processes, roles and management controls.
Sales launch and local team training
Objective: enable the local organisation to operate commercially on its own.
Sales and product training, key account management, negotiation, TCO and selling service. Joint customer visits, demonstrations and pilots. Coaching the local leader and starting Vent op de Tent.
Outcome: a team that generates prospects, prepares quotations, closes orders, delivers, organises service and builds relationships independently.
Embed progress and accelerate growth
After launch comes a crucial phase: preventing the operation from becoming trapped in day-to-day firefighting. We use management, pipeline and service reviews, coaching for the local leader, team development, cultural work and exploration of new growth opportunities. Our role evolves from builder to sounding board.
You stay in control
Each major phase ends with a formal decision point. You invest step by step, based on evidence from the market.
Is the market commercially attractive?
Are there launch customers and qualified opportunities?
Is a local entity economically justified?
Have you found the right local management?
Can the operation function independently?
From experience
Launching DAF Trucks Polska
Situation: in the early 1990s, the Polish market was opening up. Transport was growing fast, but there was no local organisation, dealer network or service infrastructure.
Ei Openers: in 1994, two of our team members, including Ei Openers co-founder Marco de Vrind, independently built the entire DAF Trucks Polska organisation as a wholly owned subsidiary of DAF Trucks NV. Opening the market, finding people and building the organisation: the approach described on this page.
Outcome: a local organisation that grew into the market leader in Poland's truck market. The lessons from that experience inform every phase of our approach.
The ultimate goal
A business that feels local to its customers, with local people, local responsibility, local service and local relationships. An organisation customers see as their own supplier.
The best outcome? You need us less and less.
Practical details
- Format: a phased market entry programme, working hands-on in the market and on site
- For: directors, owners and commercial leaders looking to enter a new country or region
- Sectors: transport and logistics, multimodal transport and rail, trucks and trailers, automotive, port and terminal equipment, material handling, heavy equipment, petrochemicals, offshore and onshore energy, and non-residential construction
- Reach: a network and experience on every continent, wherever multimodal transport and logistics flows are growing
- Support: comprehensive support: we identify and coordinate your local partners
- Services: business development, local partners, accounting, legal and tax support, HR, recruitment for key roles, premises and local team training
- Approach: six phases plus ongoing support, with a decision point after each phase
- Investment: tailored per phase, depending on the country, scope and level of involvement
Ready to enter a new country or region?
Book an introduction. We will explore your market ambitions, your position in the value chain, the local operation you need and the first phase that will add value now.
Build a local organisation that strengthens your business as it expands.
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Frequently asked questions
Do you also arrange the local entity, HR and accounting?
Yes. As a one-stop shop, we select and coordinate the local accountant, lawyer, tax adviser and HR partner, ensuring the entity, payroll, banking and insurance are ready on time. These partners' external costs are charged separately.
Can you find the local people too?
Yes. We recruit and select key people through our local network: country manager, sales team, service manager and initial technicians. We assess expertise, cultural fit and motivations, because these factors help determine whether a local operation thrives or becomes a burden.
Do we have to commit to everything at once?
No. There are five decision gates. You invest step by step, based on what the market shows you.
Do you support international markets?
Yes, that is exactly what this approach is designed for. Our team has a network and experience on every continent. Poland is a particular strategic focus, and we also open other countries and regions.
Is this suitable for hands-on B2B businesses?
Absolutely. The approach is designed for businesses where engineering, sales and service meet: transport and logistics, trucks and trailers, automotive, port and terminal equipment, material handling, heavy equipment, petrochemicals, offshore and onshore energy, and non-residential construction.
Do you deliver a market research report?
Where it adds value. Our focus is on clear decisions, commercial action and follow-up. We want to see real movement in the market.
Can you help with initial customer conversations?
Yes. This can include preparation, positioning, structuring conversations, introductions, follow-up or refining your commercial approach.
What is a good first step?
Book an introduction. We will explore your market ambitions, current proposition, existing network, sales capacity and the most useful first step.
Marco de Vrind
Ei Openers
Let’s talk
Have a question about your situation, role or next step? Together, we can find the approach that fits your day-to-day challenges, responsibilities and ambitions.
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