China's leading manufacturer of beverage packaging equipment is going through some major changes.
Zhang Songming, founder of Tech-Long Packaging Machinery Co. Ltd., has resigned from his roles of chairman, board director and general manager of the publicly listed firm, effective July 23.
Zhang's resignation was for personal reasons, but was also intended to make the company's core management younger, the company said in an announcement. Zhang is in his late 40s.
He will remain a director of Tech-Long's various subsidiaries in Shenzhen, Hefei, Dongguan, Tianjin and Guangzhou. He also will take the role of general manager of the Dongguan bottling subsidiary.
As of July 27, Zhang held 30.9 percent of the company's shares.
About a week prior, Zhang completed a transaction to sell 9.6 percent of the company shares to an investment firm in Beijing.
Zhang had told Plastics News that he founded Tech-Long in 1999 and grew the company to an industry leader. He said more than 70 percent of Chinese domestic-brand blow molding equipment comes from Tech-Long. The company claimed a 15 percent market share in China.
The company has 2,300 production lines running in 80 countries, including major customers like Procter & Gamble, Unilever and Pepsi. Its 2014 sales reached 949.6 million yuan ($152.8 million) with 12.9 million yuan ($2 million) of net profit.
Tech-Long made a high profile debut at NPE in March. It is stepping up its market development in the U.S. with recently appointed U.S. CEO Keith Boss in Atlanta.
In China, the company is continuing expansion and announced last week plans to set up a new bottling subsidiary in Zhuhai.