NOW Foods' global achievements
for its export achievements. Philip Pittsford, the company's
international sales manager, explained how his company has
benefited from the US Department of Commerce's export programs,
designed to help small and medium-sized (SMEs) businesses sell
overseas.
The Commerce Department has created various counseling and assistance programs to help SMEs sell their products and services globally. Largely thanks to them, NOW Foods has succeeded in increasing its international sales by 78 percent since it began working with the Chicago branch of the Export Assistance Center in 2001. And, year-to-date sales for 2004 are 21 percent up on the same period last year for the Bloomingdale, Illinois based firm.
Because of this success, NOW Foods was last week awarded with an export achievement certificate. "These awards are given to US manufacturers, who have used the Department of Commerce's programs, shown export growth and managed to sustain it for three years," said Pittsford.
Companies have a variety of export programs to choose from, as Pittsford explained.
"There are information type programs, which include help with market research and the identification of key maufacturers and distributors," he said. "The Gold Key program sets up interviews with companies abroad, provides translations of documents and even supplies a chaffeur to take you from meeting to meeting."
Over 50 percent of NOW's sales are currently made overseas in countries such as Brazil, Taiwan, Singapore, Venezula, Holland and Israel, but Pittsford said it is difficult to evalue this accurately in cost terms as it often takes a considerable while for the project to get off the ground.
"Dietary supplements are sold freely in the US, but elsewhere they are treated as over-the-counter (OTC) products and therefore it can take one to two years for any sales to come through, said Pittsford.
He explained that this is the case in Brazil, where because of strict legislation for supplements, the registration process for a contract is a fairly drawn out process.
In most of these countries, according to Pittsford, the products which sell best are NOW's base supplements, such as vitamin C, low dose vitamin E and calcium products.
"Joint market health products are popular in the US and sales are starting to pick up for them overseas," said Pittsford. "On the other hand, herbal products that may not do that well in the US may do better overseas."
NOW Foods plans to continue to use the Department of Commerce's programs in the future, "as it's like we have another five people working for us" said Pittsford, who has been particularly impressed with the speed with which the department works and the level of information it provides. "We would have to go to the various countries several times, spending months there to glean this level of detail.
