Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, March 20, 1994 TAG: 9403180297
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By Lon Wagner STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Those involved in the global marketplace say exporting is easy, but it usually takes years to develop overseas markets. And, they are quick to point out, not every country is as stable politically as the United States.
Following are examples of the rocky shoals and smooth sailing that regional companies have encountered overseas.
\ Optical Cable, Roanoke
Paul Oh is talking on the phone - loudly.
"Oh, India, OK. You want to place an order? I didn't receive your original fax."
It's 11 a.m. in Roanoke, and 9 p.m. in New Delhi. Because of his position as vice president of sales for the Far East and Pacific Rim, Oh also knows Japan is 14 hours ahead of Eastern Standard Time, Hong Kong is 12 hours ahead and so on. In case he loses track of where he is, he has one of those global clocks that tells him what time it is in his customer's country.
"I used to work for big companies," the Korean-born Oh said. "Those companies are giants, slow. We are a small company, moving fast."
Oh says Roanoke's leaders should note a parallel.
"As I told the mayor, we are a small community - we can make decisions quickly, as opposed to the big cities."
Like other international salespeople, Oh says he can sell from anywhere as long as he has two things: a phone and a fax. Oh comes to work early - 6 a.m. - so he can respond to requests for price quotes that have arrived by fax overnight.
Roanoke has some drawbacks, Oh said, such as a limited-service airport and a lack of wintertime entertainment for international guests.
"The airport's much better than 10 years ago but still needs some improvement," he said. "People say, `Oh, Roanoke. I went there - small propeller plane.' One Taiwanese customer, he came here, the airport was closed. He landed in Lynchburg and took a bus."
\ Magnox Inc., Pulaski
Without exporting, Magnox might not exist - it certainly wouldn't employ 190 people.
Hiawatha Nicely, executive vice president of the magnetic oxide manufacturer, said the company exported only about 10 percent of its product when a group of Hercules Inc. managers bought it in 1986. Today, the company sends 85 percent of what it manufactures overseas.
When those managers took over, they instituted a threefold increase in spending on research and development, and began focusing on developing world markets. Today their magnetic oxide is used on video- and audiocassette and computer tapes in Japan, Korean, Malaysia, Australia, Europe and "pretty much around the world," Nicely said.
Magnox has sales offices in Tokyo; Manchester, England; and Wilmington, Del. Product is shipped out of Norfolk, Charleston and Baltimore, and Nicely says Magnox's Pulaski home is not a detriment to the company's international trading.
Nicely said he makes that clear when helping with industrial recruitment to the New River Valley.
"When we're hosting a potential new industry, one of the things I try to point out as quickly as possible is that with the rail service, interstate highways and air service we have here, literally within one to two hours from my parking lot I can do business with anybody in the world," Nicely said.
\ Timber Truss Housing Systems, Salem
One day a German visitor showed up at Timber Truss' office and wanted a tour. They gave him one. He went back to Germany.
Not too long after that, the company got a call asking about its product; the next thing Timber Truss knew, it has sold 376 units in southern Germany.
"We didn't know anything about exporting," said Gary Saunders, vice president at Timber Truss. "It all seemed so exotic."
In late 1990 and early 1991, when Russian Jews were immigrating to Israel by the thousands, the Israelis needed housing quickly. Timber Truss sold them 400 units.
"At that point, we decided we were really into this," Saunders said. At that time, about 30 percent of Timber Truss' product was going overseas.
"We were very lucky to get into it as quickly as we did, but it was a nice little jolt," Saunders said. "It came in really handy in the winter of '91, because things weren't doing much here."
But Timber Truss' experience in the global marketplace hasn't all been heady success. The company hired an export manager and worked diligently in 1993, but didn't get many orders from overseas.
Timber Truss sold one house in Japan, thinking that would be its next big sales area, but hasn't sold a house there since. Still, Saunders said Timber Truss will stick with it.
"We've learned nothing happens quickly in exporting," he said. "Even the good leads take 16 months."
\ Virginia Transformer, Roanoke
This company has its custom-made transformers in subways in New York, Washington, San Diego and Los Angeles, in the World Trade Center and JFK International Airport.
Using multinational corporations - GE, Seimens, ABB - as a conduit for its products, its Roanoke-made transformers also are in Saudi Arabia, Thailand, Pakistan, China and Taiwan.
"We talk to customers so much on the phone we don't even think that we have never seen them," said Virginia Transformer President Prabhat Jain.
Jain is sure the company's future sales growth will come from overseas.
"The fact of the matter is the markets here in our country are not growing," he said. "The competition for the domestic market is fierce. I've been amazed every time I travel; I see so many opportunities, I don't have enough resources to take advantage of them."
\ Blue Ridge International, Roanoke County
Bob Denton, Blue Ridge's president, likes to say that in Romania, "they don't have Chapter 11 [bankruptcies]; they have Chapter 9 mm."
Blue Ridge has had its share of success in exporting to Romania, and with the help of a Romanian partner, the company has a 75-person operation there. "But it's not always smooth sailing," Denton said.
One time, for instance, Blue Ridge spent six months exporting wheat mills to Romania. The company had to set up its own utility poles to get electricity to the mills. Finally, they were ready to go. That's when they discovered the American mills wouldn't work with the Romanian wheat.
Denton says his company has "bet the store" three or four times in Romania, but he admits he is exporting to a country where doing business is risky.
"We missed a lot of boats and passed up on a lot of other things," he said. "Probably 60 percent of the big contracts we missed out on were because we wouldn't pay bribes."
But Denton says companies can focus on countries less risky than Romania. He's frustrated that Western Virginia companies don't do more exporting.
"It's not more difficult, really, to ship to Germany than to ship to Topeka," Denton said. "One of the reasons I came to Roanoke, I thought, `Hey, if we don't get the little guys off their butts, the whole country's going to come crumbling down.'
"Anybody in Roanoke should have 50 percent of their profits in exports. It's a crime that this country has a foreign trade deficit."
by CNB