While keeping an eye on U.S. policy changes including updated “Buy American” rules, potential tax changes and a stimulus-led economic recovery, many Swiss investors — including some in Georgia — still see opportunities outweighing risks in the world’s largest economy.
Switzerland, though a small country by population, is the sixth largest foreign investor nation in the U.S., with Swiss-owned firms accounting for more than half a million jobs across the country.
“However, this close relationship must be continually cultivated and it is our ambition to continually improve it,” Peter Zimmerli, consul general of Switzerland in Atlanta, said during a webinar organized by the Georgia Department of Economic Development.
The state has welcomed its share of Swiss investors, including companies like Sigvaris, Interoll, Corvaglia, Nestle and many more including Freshly, which announced this week it would hire 665 people at a new Georgia facility. That’s one reason the state has maintained a membership in the Zurich-based Swiss-American Chamber of Commerce.
Mr. Zimmerli said there is no reason this flow of investors shouldn’t continue, even with an evolving regulatory environment. Days into his term, President Joe Biden signed a “Buy American” executive order calling for federal agencies to strengthen the rules for U.S. content in federal purchasing deals while also ramping up enforcement. One bill now in the U.S. Senate would amend the Buy American Act, raising to 60 percent the U.S. content threshold required for a product to qualify as “American-made” for the purpose of procurement, up from 50 percent currently.
The push might actually benefit those Swiss firms that already have operations in the U.S., prompting more to set up shop here, Mr. Zimmerli said.
“We strongly believe that investing in the USA is beneficial for all the parties involved. It is actually a win-win-win situation” for both the destination and host countries, as well as the enterprise, Mr. Zimmerli said.
Martin Naville, CEO of the Swiss-American chamber, said that unlike in China, Brazil and elsewhere, a Swiss company is considered an American one for procurement purposes once they are making their products here rather than importing them.
That openness, coupled with the size of the market, means the U.S. remains a top priority for firms from Switzerland, which was recently named by International Management and Development institute as the world’s most competitive economy — a fact Mr. Zimmerli highlighted at a recent Atlanta event.
“(The U.S.) is a highly attractive market to invest in, if you’re competitive enough — and that’s a very important if,” Mr. Naville said, noting that companies are keen to invest, even as they keep watch on the “very dramatic” tax proposals coming from the Biden administration and Congress.
The bigger challenge to Swiss investment success might be aligning the culture and structure of one’s operation to the American system, Mr. Naville said.
Swiss firms often underestimate the cultural differences that come with setting up shop here — and it’s more than varying views on punctuality or mistaking which level of a building is which (in Switzerland, the first floor is actually on the second level from the ground.)
“The biggest difference is that everything is different in America,” Mr. Naville said, urging Swiss firms to avoid taking a risk-averse mentality that stigmatizes failure and over-analyzes market opportunities, as many do back home.
“You have to do a merger of equals between the Swiss system and the American system. It has to become an American company which on top has the cherry of what the Swiss parent company can offer,” he said, pointing to the need to mix of Swiss precision and American innovation and daring.
Corvaglia Closures USA, the local operation of a family-owned company based in Eschlikon, Switzerland, invested in Coweta County after deciding that it needed to be closer to its many customers in the Southeast U.S., rather than serving them from Mexico.
The company makes 80 million injection-molded plastic bottle caps per year and could see ample logistics savings with a new U.S. operation, in part thanks to freight analyses the state conducted on the company’s behalf. Corvaglia also found in Newnan a solid alignment in terms of “family values, work ethic and quality of life.”
“The state provided tremendously knowledgeable ambassadors that accompanied us on all our visits to the site,” said J.B. Fisher, the company’s general manage and president, adding that the company felt a “level of engagement and cohesion with the business community there that we had not felt in other states that we visited.”
Mr. Zimmerli, the consul general, said he also has experienced ample hospitality during his four years in “the exciting and diverse” state of Georgia and was confident that Swiss firms would receive the same treatment. He noted that preliminary talks have been held on a Swiss-U.S. free trade agreement, which he said could boost investment and trade and solidify an already strong legal framework.
In the meantime, the two sides will continue building ties based on a variety of dimensions. The Swiss Consulate is set to host a wine soiree July 11, while the state of Georgia is set to soon release a directory of Swiss companies operating in the state.
“I know now why Atlanta is also known as the city in a forest,” Mr. Zimmerli said of his time in Atlanta. “This is all it takes to make a Swiss feel at home, and the fact that our bilateral relations with the United States are excellent is just the icing on the cake.”
The event’s panel was moderated by Kimberly Roth Shulman, trade commissioner at the Swiss Business Hub USA‘s Atlanta office, which is located within the Swiss consulate. Contact her at +41 58 480 1924 or via email at kimberly.shulman@eda.admin.ch
Learn more about Corvaglia’s Newnan presence here or watch below:
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