Get to Know UQESH

The Inspiration for UQESH

In 2009, Wang Chunli, the founder of UQESH in China, worked at Sinochem and collaborated with Itoh Oil on castor oil derivatives. That was the start of a relationship that now spans more than 17 years.

Through the collaboration, he came to know castor oil in depth, not just as a vegetable oil but as an industrial raw material with unusually great potential.

Castor oil has a unique and symmetrical chemical structure that makes it possible to produce a wide range of high-performance materials, everything from components in pacemakers and seals for medical devices to specialty nylon, greases and cosmetic raw materials. Thanks to its stable properties, castor-oil-based materials play a unique and hard-to-replace role across many different applications.

Around 2010, food safety requirements were tightened significantly in China. The food industry and cleanroom environments needed flooring solutions that could meet several high demands at once: environmental considerations, heavy loads, chemicals, hot water, strict hygiene requirements and easy cleaning.

Traditional solutions, above all epoxy and ceramic tiles, struggled to meet all of these needs in a single solution.

Wang Chunli saw a growing need in China and Asia for industrial flooring that could combine high quality with reduced reliance on petroleum-based raw materials.

The technology already existed. So did the potential. What was missing was someone willing to take it further, to a larger market.

Wang Chunli thought it was worth trying. In 2011 he took the next step and joined Itoh Oil, where he worked together with the team to develop a castor-oil-based polyurethane floor for industrial environments.

After five years of joint development, the solution was ready to enter the market. In 2016, formal production began through a jointly established company in China.

The dream from the beginning was simple:

"To use castor oil as a starting point to develop materials that are both environmentally friendly and hard-wearing."

The relationship with Itoh Oil continued along the journey. Even today, Itoh Oil is our castor oil supplier, a long-term partner, and a co-owner of UQESH in China.

From Idea to Reality

17 Years of Experience, Setbacks & Trust

Developing a good product was the easier part; getting the industry to dare to invest in it was something else entirely. A new company can show samples and data sheets, but trust cannot be written onto a piece of paper.

In heavy industry, no one likes to experiment with their floors. A wrong material choice can mean costly repairs and production stoppages. Customers' question was therefore as natural as it was tough:

"Why should we dare to choose you?"

So that's where we started. With the first customer. Then the second. One project at a time. One customer at a time.

Wang Chunli and the team took on demanding industrial environments, and with every new project the product got to show what it could actually do. And slowly, trust began to grow.

An important breakthrough came in 2018, when UQESH qualified into the supply chains of, among others, AB InBev and Tsingtao Brewery. What had been an idea just a few years earlier was now gaining the confidence of some of the world's largest companies in the food and beverage industry.

After more than ten years of development and real industrial experience, UQESH has today been installed across more than six million square metres. That journey perhaps taught us the most important thing of all:

A good product can open the door. But trust is what makes people stay.

The Journey Continues in Europe

After ten years in Asia, we knew the idea and the technology worked. At the same time, we saw the European market increasingly asking the very questions that had been with us from the start: Can we use more renewable raw materials? Can we rethink materials without compromising performance?

The products, the technology and the documentation were ready to meet Europe's high standards. But one important piece of the puzzle was still missing: the right people on the ground.

The Europe Team – The Final Piece of the Puzzle

Succeeding in Europe takes more than a good product. It takes people who understand the market, can build trust, and above all want to develop something long-term.

In August 2025, the final piece of the puzzle fell into place. Three colleagues who had already worked side by side for over eight years came into contact with UQESH for the first time. Together, they had helped build a company from two employees to a turnover of over SEK 1.4 billion. They knew each other's strengths, had solved difficult problems together, and knew how they wanted to work — perhaps even more importantly, how they didn't want to work.

What captured them about UQESH, then, wasn't just the product. They encountered a team on the other side of the world with the same curiosity, drive to develop, and belief in long-term relationships. It was something they recognized in themselves.

With an understanding of both European and Asian business culture, the team could also become a natural bridge between development and market, manufacturing and customer, Asia and Europe.

And Sweden became the place where the European journey would begin. Not because it was the easiest path. But perhaps precisely because of that.

Here, materials meet strict requirements for quality, environment, working conditions and documentation. If UQESH were to establish itself in Europe, we wanted to start in a market where the products would truly get to prove themselves. At the same time, we knew that ten years of trust in Asia doesn't automatically carry across a border. It has to be earned again.

We're not particularly interested in quick deals that disappear as fast as they arrived. We like people and companies who want to build something together, where both sides get to know each other, share experiences, and get better over time.

Now the pieces of the puzzle are in place.

Materials build floors.
People build trust.
And together we build what comes next”