GOING GLOBAL
As published on page 13 of the February 26, 2011 edition of The Keene Sentinel, and online.
The banner across the website of the Westmoreland-based company Polyonics reads: "Polyonics ... means high quality and high performance in any language."
Above these words is a row of flags. Click on one to translate the entire site into German, click on another and the same information is available in Malay.
Manufacturers in the Monadnock Region ship their products around the world, from Saudi Arabia to Shanghai, and local products are sold on at least six of the world's seven continents.
How does a small New England company tap into the global marketplace?
Local exporters say it takes time, people skills and an excellent product.
Polyonics founder James Williams, a Ph.D.-holding chemist with an MBA from Dartmouth, said he didn't set out to create an international company. Polyonics produces highly engineered sticker film for placing barcodes on electronic and machine components before they go through the manufacturing process, which would destroy regular paper labels.
When the company started out in 1995, most of its customers were making barcodes for U.S. manufacturers. Williams estimates that in its early years Polyonics did between 5 and 10 percent of its sales in Europe -- connections it made through its domestic reputation.
"Say Ford was a customer here, and the Ford plant in Spain learned about us and they would have a label company over there track us down," Williams said. "We couldn't have imagined that within 10 years it would become so international."
These days, Polyonics does 70 percent of its business overseas, Williams said. The company, which employs 35 people, has sales offices in Westmoreland, Chicago, Baltimore, Singapore, Shenzhen and Shanghai.
In 2005, Williams won the U.S. Small Business Administration's Champion Award in the exporter category.
Peter Hansel, president of Filtrine Manufacturing Co., wasn't with his company when it started selling internationally in the 1950s. According to company lore, he said, its first international customer was the Saudi-American petroleum company Aramco.
Aramco was looking for a manufacturer that could make a water cooler to withstand the desert climate, and Filtrine stepped up to the challenge.
Now, the company of 80 employees does about a third of its business overseas, according to Hansel. Most of the company's international customers are in the Middle East, but it also sells its products in Central and South America and East Asia, he said.
Brattleboro-based Chroma Technology is another local manufacturer that has built up an international customer base through its reputation, according to Paul Millman, the company's president.
The 20-year-old company's third order was from a United Kingdom microscope manufacturer Millman knew through a previous job, he said.
"They gave us a trial order of two pieces, and even though that division of that customer has long since ceased to exist, they're still a customer," he said.
Chroma makes filters for microscopes and other scientific equipment. Like Williams at Polyonics, Millman attributes the company's internationalization in part to a general shift of manufacturing to other countries. There are no longer any microscopes made in the United States, he said. But manufacturers heard from their own customers about Chroma filters.
"We built up the reputation among end users, and scientists around the world wanted our products," Millman said.
Millman began traveling for business in 1995, and in 2008 the company opened a sales office in Munich. Currently, there are two Chroma employees getting settled in Xiamen, China, he said.
Millman reports he spent 63 nights in hotels last year, and in previous years he did even more traveling.
"We're a company that builds its business on one relationship at a time," he said.
Personal connections have also been important in building international business for Len-Tex Corp., according to Don Lennon, president of the Walpole-based commercial wall-covering manufacturer.
In 1991, the company had established a relationship with an agent in London who had sold a modest quantity of Len-Tex coverings. Soon after, Lennon, who says he had never traveled internationally before then, decided to take an English vacation.
Meeting in person with his first international agent was eye-opening, Lennon said.
"Suddenly we were doing much more business into the U.K.," he said.
In 1998 he made his first trip to Asia, he said, and in 2002 he did a trip through Russia, the Ukraine and Poland.
These days, Lennon estimates, he travels four months out of every year.
"Unless you're selling a real pure commodity you need to have face time with people," he said. "Until you build a relationship and real trust is established you're not going to do much business. You may do a little but you won't do much."
Selling and traveling internationally helps these companies stay innovative and up-to-date with their customers' demands.
"We never made reds until we went to China for the first time," Lennon said.
Red is a lucky color in Chinese culture and seen everywhere -- even on walls.
An international presence helps Chroma stay on the cutting edge of research.
"It's the scientists that push us forward, so having the world-wide contacts give us a broader foundation for understanding what scientists need," Millman.
Selling in diverse markets has also help these companies weather the recent recession.
"The last couple of years were very hard for everybody," Lennon said. "Having customers in Brazil, China, and the Middle East has definitely helped."
Filtrine's Hansel agreed.
"We've always had the feeling that we want to have enough diversification, both in our product line and in our sales, so that if one area is not working well the other will make up for it," he said.
Other benefits of selling internationally are more subtle.
"It adds to our prestige, and it allows us to talk face-to-face with very large companies and say: 'We're there, we can support you,' " said Williams of Polyonics.
And business isn't the only thing Williams found while traveling abroad.
He traveled to Russia for a meeting arranged by the U.S. Commerce Department's "Gold Key" business matching service. The interpreter had a friend named Elena.
She and Williams married in 2004.
tagged with: business, feature, international trade, manufacturing
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