Indiv pursues global poultry industry

Forest W. Lipscomb Jr. has set foot in more than 60 countries in his lifetime.

However, this Springfield native is not now and never has been called a tourist; he is well-traveled in the name of business.

Lipscomb is president and founder of International Divi-sion Inc., or Indiv, an agricultural export company specializing in the poultry industry.

Its headquarters is at 401 W. McDaniel, but the global company has offices in the countries of Mexico, Honduras, Colom-bia, Venezuela and Argentina, and conducts business worldwide.

At the heart of this purchasing agency is acquiring poultry equipment and products from American sources and arranging their export to foreign customers, making Indiv a major player in Springfield's $200 million export business.

Name of the game

"Poultry operations that's our specialty," Lipscomb said of the company he founded in 1964. "We do get into other things, but poultry operations are our main focus. And that encompasses a lot of things."

That's evident in the company's numerous descriptive titles: international trading company; export management service; international marketing partner.

"It's an industry within itself, and we have to be flexible enough to be able to provide everything really ... from the prefabricated buildings up through all the equipment (customers) may need. ... We'll supply the parts that are necessary, too," he added. "We call ourselves a one-stop service."

That service includes equipment, accessories and installation of feeding systems and mills, hatcheries, watering systems, breeding systems, cage layer systems, ventilation systems, prefabricated buildings, processing and grain storage buildings, even insurance and financing everything involved with the raising of poultry.

Early beginnings

The international market requires a second layer of business services that starts with getting to know the trade area.

For Lipscomb, that began in 1958 when he was working in Trinidad. As an employee of the Lipscomb Feed & Seed Co., which was founded in 1898 by his grandfather, Caleb Lipscomb, he moved overseas "to build a feed mill and start the modernization of the poultry feed farm in Trinidad in the West Indies."

Little did he know that this effort to benefit the family business would evolve into an international corporation with gross sales of around $10 million a year.

"This company developed from that experience because we we're trying to help the farmers down there by bringing in equipment that they couldn't get any other way," Lipscomb said. "We had three vessels at one time, sailing back and forth between the Caribbean area. ... We needed to carry our supplies to Trinidad to operate the feed mill we had down there."

International challenges

But Lipscomb is quick to point out that it's not easy setting up overseas offices.

"The idea of doing this in the first place is to be close to your trade territory and have qualified people easily available to the end user," Lipscomb said of his international locations. "Setting up an office isn't for everyone, and it is not for every situation because it is expensive. ... Finding the right kind of a person to operate your office is a big job, and you have to be very careful because if you don't oversee the operation, you can be taken pretty badly sometimes."

Before deciding on a location, Lipscomb said he first looks at the state of the country's economy, then at the difficulty of doing business there through its customs and currency exchange. Finally, he analyzes the poultry industry in that trade region to avoid monopolized areas.

The next step is selecting an office manager. He said he does that through personal contacts within the trade territories made during start-up visits. "You meet certain people in the territory that you feel are qualified," he said. Lipscomb added that the individual must be a qualified engineer to be considered, and once appointed, overseas managers cover more than one country in their trade territory.

He said that generally it takes three or four people to run an international office, and the company has about 30 employees in all. With five offices outside of the United States, about half of Indiv's employees are located internationally. For those areas not covered by an international manager, Lipscomb said there are four people from the Springfield office who travel to and oversee those locations.

Once established in a country, it's time to find clients and begin projects. Again, Lipscomb said, that is not always easy. He has found that businesses in other countries have a hard time putting their finances together.

For example, two years ago Indiv was working on a project in Russia "that was going to be the biggest project we ever had," Lipscomb said. "We took a trip over there ... it looked very good, and they couldn't get their financing put together. So it was out. ... That's what sinks them. They can't put their financing together."

The primary area where Indiv does business is Latin America, where it covers all countries except Brazil. "We work mostly with developing countries; we always have," he said. "We feel we are more effective in those areas. Latin America is the main thrust of our sales area."

Indiv also covers all countries in the Caribbean, excluding Cuba, but "when (Cuba) opens, we'll be ready to go," he said. A lot of business is performed in Jamaica, Barbados, Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico, he added.

Parts of North Africa Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Morocco and some Pacific Rim countries, including Thailand and Bangladesh, as well as Middle Eastern territories like Iran and Iraq, appear on the client list, too.

The only market not served is Europe.

Indiv is now bidding on a major project in the Philippines. Although there is no office there, Indiv is able to work through an agent. "The language barrier really requires us to have agents," Lipscomb said.

Another recent project bid is in Indonesia. He said there are staff members in both countries, and he is awaiting word from them.