Distributor Search in France for Riken Keiki

The client

RIKEI KEIKI GmbH is the German subsidiary of Riken Keiki Co., Ltd. A Japanese company founded in 1939 that develops, manufactures, and services industrial gas detection and alarm equipment, with headquarters in Tokyo and about 1,349 employees worldwide.

The German subsidiary, RIKEN KEIKI GmbH, was established in Eschborn in 2018 and serves as the company’s European base for gas detectors, calibration, and maintenance services. RIKEN KEIKI GmbH was already selling in most European countries through distributors and clients, except in France.

The problem

RIKEN KEIKI GmbH was already selling in most European countries through distributors and clients, except in France. The French market was highly difficult to penetrate.

When the company contacted us, they had already previously conducted a partner search in France with another firm and had a partial list of distributors but no direct contact with any of them.

RIKEN KEIKI wanted to ensure they identified all the relevant distributors in France, had a thorough prospecting campaign to get market feedback, and established long-term relations with one or more French distributors to achieve high revenue goals in France.

Significant Issues to Solve:

1. Searching all the distributors in France selling fixed and portable gas detectors. 
2. Approaching the partners across the country, pitching them on adding a new brand into their portfolio
3. Establishing long-term relations and signing distribution agreements with one or more distributors
4. Ensuring most target markets are covered by the pool of distributors (marine/naval, fixed detectors, industrial environment, etc.)

The solution

We suggested that RIKEN KEIKI GmbH use our Distributor Search service. Based on their sales in other EU countries around France, they had a strong intuition they had a high sales potential in France and that finding the right distributors to work with was the key.

Our mission for RIKEN KEIKI GmbH lasted ~4 months to identify the distributors, from the kick-off training session in April 2025 to finishing the round of meetings with distributors in September 2025. We continued providing slight support for Riken Keiki in the following 6 months to ensure proper onboarding and response from identified distributors.

Process and Achievements:

1. Kick-off meeting and training session
2. Test list of 5 prospects to confirm distributor type and marketing materials in French 
3. Long list of 49 importers-distributors identified
4. Prospecting phase and interviewing distributors before setting up meetings
5. Scheduling 14 meetings for our client with potential distributors
6. Providing 7 distributors with decisive actions (NDA to engage in discussions, agreement signed, testing phase, orders...)
7. 3 distributors started ordering a few months later

The result

As a direct result of our Distributor Search service in France, RIKEN KEIKI worked with three French distributors for their products. This led to large sales in the four months following the partner selection.

Our Client Achievements and Sales Results:

• Sent products for testing to its new distributors
• Our client visited a selection of the distributors identified. They started training and sales activities
• Sales increased from 0 to a considerable number of units sold