Industrial camera manufacturer IDS Imaging Development Systems GmbH has opened a representative office in Tokyo, from where Christian van der Ploeg will be providing assistance to distributors and customers in the Asia-Pacific region starting from 1st June 2010.

The company from Obersulm in Swabia/Germany has been operating a subsidiary in Boston, USA, since 2007. Trading partners distribute IDS products in over 30 countries around the world. The representative office in Japan is intended to simplify the delivery and increase the level of support available to the company's trading partners in the APAC region.

Christian van der Ploeg, who joined the company to take up this post, was born in Cologne, studied Japanology and has been living in Tokyo for several years. He was previously employed in business consultancy and has extensive experience of working with Asian companies. Following his training at the IDS headquarters he will be available as a contact for sales and technical issues.

Explaining the company's expansion, Managing Director Torsten Wiesinger said: "Along with Germany and the USA, Japan is one of the three biggest markets for image processing. Opening a representative office in Tokyo is an important step towards further expanding our Asian business."
Plans to develop the representative office into a full subsidiary are already being made: "We intend to employ further sales and support staff to additionally increase our growth there", Wiesinger announced.