Export program coaches companies to success

11/17/2011
Six Idaho companies went through an intensive export training program with one goal: To increase sales abroad.

Set up in the form of a competition, Export Excellence coached companies to set up a customized export action plan. Rekluse Motor Sports of Boise was named the winner, with its plan to expand sales into Germany and France.

Each of the participating companies was assigned an export coach from the Idaho District Export Council and an intern from Boise State’s International Business Program. Companies had access to experts from the Idaho District Export Council, such as the US Commercial Service, the Idaho Department of Agriculture, the Idaho Department of Commerce and the Idaho Manufacturing Extension Partnership.

Other participants in the program were Bully Dog Technologies of Aberdeen, Wear Ease of Boise, In the Ditch Towing Products of Mountain Home, Premier Technology of Blackfoot, and Treasure Valley Food Group of Boise.

Rekluse won a Gold Key from the US Commercial Service, a program of the U.S. Department of Commerce that facilitates exporting. The Gold Key provides prequalified appointments for an Idaho company in an international market of the company’s choosing.

“The expertise and genuine support we received during this program is truly remarkable,” said Joe DeGano, sales and marketing manager for Rekluse. “The resources we had available to us in exporting have exploded.”

This is the third year of the Export Excellence program. Meyer Industries in Midvale participated in a previous program and credits it with helping the company establish new distributorships in South Africa, Spain and France. Its goal is to increase international sales from 40 percent to 75 percent of total sales.
The program “enabled me to fast-track my international business plan,” said company president Ed Meyer.

For information on future Export Excellence programs, contact Jennifer Verdon at the Idaho Department of Commerce, 334-2470.

News tag(s): Business International