Success stories encourage exporters - also includes a related articles on the presidents export awards

Business America, May 22, 1989

If they can do it, why can't we do it too?

That is the question Business America hopes beginning exporters will ask themselves when they read the export success stories we publish regularly in the feature, Exporting Pays Off.

These stories about small- and medium-sized companies might strike some chords with similar firms and spark more vigorous export activity.

Therefore, in this World Trade Week issue of Business America, we thought it would be appropriate to summarize our export success stories of the past six months.

* Salt Lake City-"In many countries, they resent having the United States tell them how to do business. U.S. exporters have to think as Europeans, or as Asians." So says Gretchen Bazz, International Sales Manager for the 35employee I-O Corporation, manufacturer of computer equipment and accessories. Bazz admits, "We knew nothing about exporting. As we overcame each hurdle, we grasped more and more about the process." In the start-up phase, she received important assistance from the Salt Lake City District Office of the Commerce Department's International Trade Administration. "We got a lot of handholding," Bazz said. Bazz thought at the beginning the firm might be able to export 25 percent of its productiontoday, it sells 50 percent.

* Kalamazoo, Mich.-Skill in managing foreign credit and collections is "very critical" to export success, says William Lewis, Vice President-Export for Allen Testproducts Division. "We have become adept in credit/collections management," Lewis said. "We have developed an almost foolproof method for keeping losses in this area close to zero." One way the firm keeps its risks low is to buy insurance from the Foreign Credit Insurance Association (FCIA), an agency of the Export-Import Bank of the United States. The firm, which manufactures automotive diagnostic and testing equipment, keeps its export terms flexible, so it can match foreign competition. A 1981 winner of the President's "E" Award for exporting achievement, Allen Testproducts sells between 15 and 20 percent of its production overseas.

* Minnetonka, Minn.-LecTec Corporation estimated it might be closing the door to 75 percent of its sales potential if it failed to tap into the intemational market, so it began a focused effort to build exports. The firm's first step was to place notices in overseas trade journals. It located foreign customers and business partners by using the export services of the U.S. Department of Commerce through the Minneapolis District Office of the International Trade Administration and also of the Minnesota Trade Office. Today, the company sells in Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Peru, Uruguay, among other countries. The company has joined other Minnesota producers in an association (Medical Alley) to sell a full line of medical products abroad.

* Moline, Ill.-"Being a small company can be an advantage in exporting," says Pat Malmloff, Export Manager for the 60-employee Parr Instrument Co. "We're more flexible," she said. "We can rearrange our schedules more easily than larger companies to meet the special needs of our customers. It may be simpler for us to develop close personal relationships with our agents and customers." Parr Instruments sells laboratory equipment, such as calorimeters and pressure vessels, in about 50 countries. In January the company won the President's "E Star" for continued outstanding efforts in exporting.

* Burlington, N.C.-"Many people told us that mail order would not work overseas," says J. Claude Harmon, Export Manager for Carolina Biological Supply Company. Undaunted, the company sent mail order catalogs to foreign educators. To Harmon's astonishment, the response rate was about double the rate on domestic mailings. To locate customers, the firm purchases mailing lists of teachers all over the world and sends them catalog request cards-generally 100,000 to 200,000 cards a year. This fiscal year, the firm's intemational sales are up 25 percent. The company manufactures and buys for resale educational supplies for science; it has exported preserved rabbits to Australia and live cockroaches to Mexico.

* Oak Ridge, Tenn.-Being small has not kept Quality Control Instruments from selling one-third of its production outside the United States. The fouremployee firm furthermore has cracked the difficult Japanese market-Japan is the largest of its 26 foreign-country markets. The Japanese business started with a QCI advertisement in a trade journal, spotted by executives of Nippon Steel. Three Nippon executives arranged to meet Roger Derby, QCI President, at a trade show in Philadelphia in 1986. The meeting, which lasted three hours, led to regular orders, now running on the scale of $5,000 a month. Derby says he likes doing business with the Japanese, because they pay promptly and keep placing more orders.

* Dunkirk, Md.-"We make better products than that," Stanley Skalka, President of Victor Stanley, Inc., thought when he saw a display in a department store window in 1967. Skalka telephoned the manager of the store and then went to talk to him. The store started buying Victor Stanley products on a regular basis, and the company was into exporting. Skalka, whose company makes street furniture, says businesses should not overlook the export assistance available from state govemments. He has received help from the Maryland Office of International Trade and from its offices in Brussels and Hong Kong.