|
Toner Plastics
“Thanks to Ann Pieroway [Western Massachusetts Program Director of MSBDC’s Massachusetts Export Center], my business now generates 5-7% of its sales volume in Western Europe. Within the next three years, we expect those numbers to double,” observes Agawam entrepreneur Steven L. Graham (right). Graham owns Toner Plastics, which manufactures CraftLace™ (gimp) and which assembles a variety of children’s activity craft kits, sporting monikers like Poseable Pals, Natural Knots, and Noyds. Before connecting with Pieroway in 1998, Graham had floundered for five years on the waiting list to display his wares at Nuremberg’s giant annual toy fair. “The Nuremberg Fair is to Europe what the annual February toy fair in New York is to the United States: if you want to win friends and influence people in the toy business, you exhibit there,” remarks Graham. Working with the Massachusetts Port Authority, Pieroway secured booth space at Nuremberg for Toner in 1999. Since then, the firm has returned each year. “With Massport, you exhibit first class,” observes Graham. “We had a very comfortable three square meter exhibition space; Massport negotiated the booth space and did all the leg work. They helped get accommodations for us right in Nuremberg [no mean feat] and helped us arrange transportation and shipping. They also got a translator for us and worked with us on multilingual product descriptions and packaging. Several months before this year’s fair, Ann alerted me to new labeling regulations. Without that heads-up, I might have had trouble exhibiting."
“Like much else in life, doing business in Europe comes with a learning curve. We’re now in Germany, France, the Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, and the U.K.—every country has its own nuances in consumer tastes and distribution. In the United States you do business through distributors, wholesalers, and retailers. In Europe, almost all of my export contacts are with distributors.” Not so for importing and sourcing, he adds. “Quite unexpectedly, I met a manufacturer in Nuremberg from whom I’m directly sourcing hemp for some of my craft kits. I’m also discussing the prospect with a second European manufacturer of being their U.S. distributor for a line of wooden construction toys. The Massachusetts Export Center had additional impact at Toner Plastics. Through the center, Graham attended a trade conference in Boston, where he learned some of the ropes of doing business with the European Economic Community and met Massport representatives assigned to various European countries. In the Spring of 2001, Pieroway assigned a student intern from Western New England College to help Graham pursue trade leads that he had obtained the previous February in Nuremberg. “I can’t emphasize enough how savvy, proactive, and congenial Ann has been,” remarks Graham. “Without her and the Massachusetts Export Center, we might still be on the Nuremberg Fair waiting list. Instead, we’re looking at sales in Western Europe that might soon equal 15% of our revenues.”
About Us
|
Services
|
Advising Centers
| Training Seminars
|
Find
Closest Office
| Outreach Sites
_______________________________________________________
|
