When you’re looking for a place to live in Shanghai, make sure it’s no more than a 15-minute walk from the office. That’s the number-one piece of advice a Chinese colleague gave to Lisanne Giehl and Laila Adler. In summer, the city’s temperatures can soar past 40°C, with humidity to match. “Otherwise, you’re already worn out by the time you get to work,” says Giehl. The two found a flat through a booking website, conveniently located near the subway.
Giehl, 21, and Adler, 24, are both on a dual study programme at Sebapharma. Based in Boppard on the Rhine, the company is best known for its sebamed range of medical skincare products – and for its trademark pH value of 5.5. What began as a German success story has long since gone global. This global presence enabled the two students to spend six weeks abroad – first in Shanghai, then in Hong Kong. Wir.Hier. spoke with them before they left and later again via video call from China.
Immersed in a different culture
For both, it’s a rare chance to gain international experience and immerse themselves in a completely different culture. “I spent a year abroad in the US during school,” says Adler at Sebapharma’s headquarters. “But China is a whole different story.” Giehl adds: “We’re really excited to meet the people, discover the new environment and work in such a different setting.” In the weeks before leaving, they had regular calls with colleagues in China to prepare.
High demand for German-made skincare in China
For Sebapharma, China is an attractive market. “Medical skincare enjoys a high status there,” explains Christian Metzing, the company’s Head of HR. With its clean, clinical design and “Made in Germany” label, sebamed is very well received.
The company manufactures exclusively in Germany. In the past, the company worked with contract manufacturers, but today it operates its own production facilities – one built in 2022 in Pfalzfeld, Hunsrück, and another acquired in Norderstedt, near Hamburg. From these sites, products are exported to roughly 100 countries worldwide. Shanghai and Hong Kong are the company’s first international offices, employing a team of 11 in areas ranging from sales to controlling.
“Communication works differently here”
A few weeks later, the two are in Shanghai. Speaking via video call, the sound of a scooter horn outside hints at the bustle of the 30-million-strong metropolis. “We’ve seen crowds like nothing we’ve ever experienced before,” says Adler. “And in the workplace, communication is completely different from what we expected,” adds Giehl. “People are very direct, and it’s fine to give criticism – no one takes it personally.”
Work that benefits both sides
Adler focuses on bridging cultural differences between the German and Chinese teams, with the aim of creating a better mutual understanding of how each culture operates. Giehl is working on aligning local marketing more closely with headquarters in Germany. She noted that potential customers in China are reached much more through e-commerce and social media than in Germany, but that there are synergies to be explored – which is the focus of her current work.
In Shanghai, they also visited a major warehouse where unprinted sebamed bottles from Germany are labelled and packaged for the Chinese market.
Dual study: the perfect fit
Adler is enthusiastic about the dual study route: “When I first read about it, it sounded like the jackpot to me.” She loves combining academic theory with hands-on training at a company whose products she has used since childhood. Giehl, too, has long been a fan of sebamed. “When I was looking for companies offering a dual programme, I was immediately convinced by Sebapharma,” she says – not least because of the chance to work abroad. The company organises and funds these placements in full.
Giehl and Adler have already experienced a lot in their free time in China – for example, visiting the picturesque water town of Zhujiajiao. Giehl said: “We’ve already had a typhoon here with torrential rainfall.” Whether positive or negative, these experiences will help both of them to deal with unfamiliar situations in their future working lives.
About Sebapharma
The Sebapharma success story began in 1967, when Heinz Maurer founded sebamat GmbH in Boppard-Bad Salzig and launched the first soap-free cleansing bar with a skin-friendly pH value of 5.5. Today, Sebapharma, as a distribution company, employs around 440 people and markets nearly 170 products worldwide under the brand names sebamed, tensimed, and TESTAmed. More than 400 clinical and dermatological studies confirm the consistent realisation of the founder’s goal: “Science for healthy skin.”
