Three Companies Receive U.S. Commerce Department’s Export Achievement Certificates
On Wednesday, December 7, U.S. Senator Jim DeMint (R-SC) presented the U.S. Commerce Department’s Export Achievement Certificate (EAC)to three Lowcountry businesses: Access Customs Brokers, Coastal Technologies, and World Packaging Company. The award recognizes U.S. companies that have benefited from the Department’s Commercial Service export assistance to make their first export sale or open new foreign markets.
The EAC recipients gathered at the Harbour Club in Charleston following their recognition by Senator DeMint. Pictured above from left to right: Ms. Rocio Abrams and Ken Damon, President, World Packaging Company; Harry Wechsler, President and Norman Mansson, Vice President, Coastal Technologies, Inc.; Phil Minard, Manager Charleston U.S. Export Assistance Center; David Holst, President, and Bradley Ward, General Manager, of Access Customs Brokers.
“Small and medium-sized companies like these comprise almost 97 percent of U.S. exporters and account for most of the new job growth in America,” said the Senator.
· Access Customs Brokers, Inc. is a full service, independently owned import brokerage and freight forwarding company located in Charleston, SC. Mr. David Holst, President and Owner of the company, is aggressively pursuing foreign business development by working with South Carolina Trade Partners. He has taken part in seminars coordinated on Incoterms and on the NAFTA Certificate of Origin. Recently, on May 23rd of this year, David took part in the Trade Mission to Chile that was a joint effort between the S. C. Department of Commerce and the U. S. Department of Commerce. As a result of that trip, David is glad to report an initial sale for transportation services and customs clearing services to the PaulinCay Company of Santiago, a manufacturer of interior doors and moldings. He is looking forward to continued business with this company and anticipates additional business as a result of this trade mission.
· Located in Summerville, World Packaging Co. manufactures and refurbishes beverage filling machines for cans and bottles. Ken Damon, President, and his staff have benefited from numerous market research reports and trade leads from many countries. World Packaging staff have attended SC-based trade development seminars and, in March of this year, Mr. Damon met with Scott Pozil, a Commercial Service Officer from Singapore, when he visited South Carolina. Mr. Pozil provided some valuable background on the Singapore market and subsequently sent the company industry-specific information on the Singapore bottling sector. As a result of this assistance and cooperation, Ken Damon and Ms. Rocio Abrams recently reported a significant sale to a Singapore Coca-Cola Bottling plant.
Hampton-based Coastal Technologies manufactures Airol Mist Eliminators that are integrated to industrial gas scrubbers mostly in the pulp/paper industry, although they are starting to develop sales to the Utility and Power Industries. Their export sales have grown steadily over the past few years primarily to Canada and Scandinavia. Today their exports represent 1/3 of overall sales. With the help of the U.S. Commercial Service and other Federal and State Economic Development Partners, Coastal Technologies has recently completed its first sale of equipment to a Chinese customer in Hangzhou. A key component of this first sale was the financial assistance provided by the EXIM Bank and the SBA. Mr. Norman Mansson, Coastal’s VP of Sales, foresees this sale as the first of a potentially long series to an emerging environmental market in China. They are looking at hiring one or two additional employees as a result of this initial sale and possibly more as their export business continues to grow.
The U.S. Commercial Service is a U.S. Commerce Department agency that helps small and midsize U.S. businesses sell their products and services globally. The Charleston U.S. Export Assistance Center is part of the agency’s worldwide network, which includes 107 U.S. Export Assistance Centers throughout the United States and more than 150 international offices. For more information on the U.S. Commercial Service, please visit http://www.export.gov and the local S.C. website at http://www.buyusa.gov/southcarolina .