Partnership for profit: Swiss/German group looks to China as technical focus pays off.

LEVERKUSEN, GERMANY -- FoamPartner, the umbrella name for an international group of foam makers, is going from strength to strength. Despite its main operations being in the high-cost countries of Germany and Switzerland, its 2004 annual results show turnover up 5 percent, to SFr134 million ($112 million) in what it calls a "stagnating market."

The bulk of the firm's business is spread across Europe, but it has a unit in North America, some business in the Far East, primarily in Japan, and is in the final stages of establishing itself in the People's Republic of China,