Cindy Walter, right, Odorite’s vice-president of sales, with Sally Pacheco, an international trade specialist with the U.S. Export Assistance Center in Kansas City

  Odorite International Inc., a leading manufacturer and exporter of odor control and janitorial products, has expanded into three new global markets in the past year thanks to leads it has received from Commercial News USA, the official export promotion magazine of the U.S. Department of Commerce.
            Odorite’s overseas strategy is paying off.  “In the past 12 months, three of our new distributors came to us by way of Commercial News,” said Cindy Walter, Odorite’s vice president of sales. “In terms of dollars, in a year this represents $300,000 in new business for us. Typically, by year five this will bring in $1.8 million in business. Some grow faster and achieve business quicker than others, but from historical numbers this is what we anticipate.”
            Kansas City-based Odorite has used advertisements in Commercial News USA, along with advice from its local U.S. Export Assistance Center, to greatly expand its distributorships in the global marketplace.
            “Commercial News USA is one of the few publications that we advertise in regularly because we get quality leads,” said Walter. “I can’t stress enough that this has been about long-term ramifications, building international partnerships,” said Walter.
            The first Odorite ad ran in Commercial News in September, 1993, and has been part of their marketing strategy ever since.
            One contact from Commercial News USA led Odorite to a warehousing and distribution deal in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, creating a single shipping destination for products routing to European distributors. Recent inquires from Colombia, India, Ukraine, Ireland, United Arab Emirates, Chile, and Saudi Arabia, are, in Walter’s words, “all valid prospects for us.”
            “The quality of those leads is of significant importance.” Walter added that a deal with an importer in Vietnam is nearing completion  The importer already has a hard-to-obtain import license, which can be a major hurdle in that country. That lead come to Odorite through Commercial News USA.
           The Chile inquiry produced an order for installations and service in 600 new bathrooms, a number expected to grow. The UAE contact demonstrates the magazine’s long shelf life in that the prospective partner responded in 2006 to an issue of the magazine from 2000. “Each piece of the puzzle makes a complete program for me to build long-term relationships,” Walter said.
            An inquiry from Saudi Arabia, also generated by a Commercial News USA ad, gave Odorite its first opportunity in the Saudi marketplace. Walter worked closely with Sally Pacheco,an international trade specialist with the U.S. Export Assistance Center in Kansas City, and utilized the Commerce Department’s Gold Key Service, which uses Commercial Service trade specialists in the target country to help locate potential partners, even arranging meetings in-country with prospective partners. With Pacheco’s guidance, Walter researched the regulations and requirements for doing business in the kingdom. “I am happy to say that Odorite now exports to Saudi Arabia with a very fine distributor,” said Walter. “We look for this distributor to be one of our top 10 in the next three years.”
            Dan Bunch, Odorite’s CEO, hired Walter in 2004 to spearhead the company’s push for global expansion. Bunch had already worked closely with Pacheco and the Export Assistance Center to open new markets for Odorite in Europe in the early 1990s. Walter continued to expand that relationship through Pacheco, utilizing Commerce’s International Partner Search (IPS) program in addition to the Gold Key Service.
            “We counsel U.S. companies on expanding globally,” said Pacheco. “Odorite really wanted to go broad – they looked into markets from Zambia to Israel to Chile to India.”
            At Pacheco’s suggestion, Odorite began advertising in Commercial News USA, the official export promotion magazine of the U.S. Commerce Department. “Currently the only advertising that we do outside of our industry publications is with Commercial News USA,” said Walter.
            Pacheco said that while the IPS and Gold Key programs can help an American companies break into specific overseas markets, she recommends the Featured U.S. Export (FUSE) program and advertising in Commercial News USA to companies seeking to increase their exports who “want to get a feel for general interest in the foreign marketplace in general; to see what’s out there.”
            Pacheco added that Odorite is “a poster child” for the Commerce Department’s export assistance programs. “Cindy Walter is very thorough about doing her homework,” she said. “We provide these resources, but it’s up to the companies to do research and make the best use of them. If more companies were aware of the resources and services that were out there to help them, I think they could be as successful as Odorite. We can help companies but we can’t do it for them.”
            During the past 70 years, Odorite International Inc. has pioneered an exclusive distributorship system to manage infiltration of its products into domestic and international markets. Although the company produces all but three of its 147 products lines within the United States, it exports an estimated 80% of all products to foreign distributors.
            Meanwhile, said Walter, Odorite continues to have success advertising in Commercial News USA. “We find that Commercial News offers legitimacy to who we are and what we do.”
           
            More information about Commercial News USA is available online at www.export.gov/cnusa or by calling 1-800-581-8533