Export sales increase 115 percent in six years

by Karen E. Culp

SBJ Staff

Exports are big business in the Ozarks. Those in the export business have long extolled the importance of international business to our local economy, and a recent U.S. Department of Commerce report confirms that thinking.

The Department of Commerce reports a 115 percent increase in Springfield area export sales between 1993 and 1998. Export sales for the Springfield metropolitan area reached nearly $175 million in 1998, up $33 million from the previous year.

"This is not surprising. I'm in touch with those who are in the export business here in Springfield and I know that those companies who are in the export business have seen significant growth, so I'm not surprised to see this level of growth in the overall market at all," said Robert Hetherington, president of Paul Mueller Company's international division and president of the Greater Ozarks International Trade Association.

The trade association provides support and resources for Ozarks businesses that are in the international market.

The Department of Commerce Survey included 253 metropolitan areas, and 54 percent of them measured more than 100 percent growth between 1993 and 1998.

Springfield, at 115 percent growth, was among those, ranking 43rd in the percentage change of export sales between 1993 and 1998, according to the department's report.

"This demonstrates that sales abroad have become increasingly important to the Springfield economy. One cannot overstate the importance of exports in creating jobs, and economic growth and opportunity in southwestern Missouri," said Randall LaBounty, director of the U.S. Export Assistance Center in St. Louis, in the report.

Paul Mueller Company's growth has followed, and surpassed, the overall area's growth in export sales, Hetherington said.

"From the end of 1992 until the end of 1998, we grew 400 percent in international sales. We went from $5 million worth of export sales in 1992 to $20 million in 1998. That is very significant growth, not only for this division, but it has accounted for Paul Mueller Company's overall growth," Hetherington said.

It was a commitment of the company's top management that made it pursue international markets so aggressively, Hetherington said.

"Our market is the world. We've really taken a global approach to our sales and marketing," he added.

Mueller makes stainless steel products for dairy farms, breweries, water purification, refrigeration and thermal storage. Those product lines are all being sold to customers in international markets.

"Dairy farm has been a very good line for us overseas, but every one of our product lines has been successfully sold in international markets," Hetherington said.

Mueller's top international markets are Japan, Mexico, the United Kingdom and China.

"It has been an effort on our part to reach those markets, but there has also been a big change in the world economy. Many more markets are opening themselves, are forming more democratic governments and moving toward free-market systems. We've seen that especially with China most recently. Now their course is set," Hetherington said.

International sales account for 25 percent of Mueller's overall sales.

In addition to selling overseas, the company is now moving into joint ventures with companies in other countries. The company just completed a joint venture with a Mexican company, Monta?a. It is now 50 percent owner of that manufacturing center, which makes products comparable to Mueller's.

"They had been a customer of ours and a competitor of ours, and we saw this opportunity and went for it. This is not an example of sending jobs from here to Mexico. This is going to increase production here and in that plant," Hetherington said.

Another local export company, International Division, or Indiv, has doubled its growth rate in the past two years, said its president, Forest Lipscomb.

The company markets products for the poultry industry, mostly in Latin American markets, Lipscomb said. The company also has some sales in Asia and the Middle East.

Indiv has been in business for 35 years. Lipscomb said the growth in international sales has been biggest in the southwest Missouri area in the past two years.

"I think we have a lot of good resources for exporters here now, with the local trade association. And many people, including our company, are taking advantage of the Internet for export sales," Lipscomb said.

Though the Midwest may not seem the ideal location for a company that sells to the Latin American market, Lipscomb said the company is close to suppliers, and access to highways has leveled the playing field for Indiv.

"You might think we should be in Dallas, Texas, or Miami, Fla., but we are in a good position here, and with transportation the way it is today, we think we have a level playing field," Lipscomb said.

Hetherington predicts international business will continue to grow in the Ozarks.

The Ozarks trade association of which he is president has grown from 50 to about 150 members in six years.

"This will continue to be a significant factor in Ozarks business," Hetherington said.

He added that it is Paul Mueller Company's goal to make export sales account for 50 percent of the company's overall sales.

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