‘Jump in … and go for it’
Published 9:00 pm Thursday, June 10, 2004
LYNNWOOD – Small businesses should not be afraid of trying to crack the export markets, the owner of an Everett aerospace company said Thursday.
“Jump in headfirst and go for it,” said Robert Desroches, president of Boundary Layer Research Inc. “There’s a whole world out there and a lot of customers.”
Desroches was the speaker at a Snohomish County International Trade Day event, co-sponsored by the state International Trade Office in Seattle and the Snohomish County Economic Development Council.
Representatives of about 15 businesses attended the conference, meeting with the state’s foreign trade representatives to discuss opportunities to do business in places like China, Japan, Germany and Taiwan.
Desroches’ company provides kits that improve the performance of airplanes and helicopters by altering the flow of the air over the wings and fuselage.
The pieces themselves are fairly simple, Desroches said, but the time and money involved in certifying them drives up the cost.
The company spent $1.2 million over two years to certify tail-boom strakes on UH-1 helicopters, the “Hueys” that became a symbol of the Vietnam War and which are still flown around the world. It costs Desroches’ company $300 to have the pieces manufactured, and they sell the kits for $15,000 each.
Still, aircraft owners – particularly the U.S. armed forces and some allies – are finding that it’s cheaper to upgrade their existing aircraft than spend hundreds of millions of dollars to buy new airplanes, he said. That’s creating new business opportunities for the company.
“Ninety percent of the world’s militaries are flying Vietnam-era UH-1 (helicopters),” Deroches said. “A lot of the existing airplanes are now getting extended 20, 30 or 40 years, because the cost of replacing them is getting out of hand.”
Boundary Layer Research increased its revenue about 50 percent in 2003 and foresees similar growth ahead, he said. About 40 percent of the total is overseas sales.
The company got in the export business for the simple reason that so many American-built aircraft are flown by foreign owners. It’s now selling to customers in 117 countries, with Asian among the newest markets.
That’s led the company all over the world, seeking help from the U.S. Department of Commerce and the state’s trade office, among others.
It’s not always easy. Desroches said Bounday Layer has had to get creative to make sure foreign government customers pay them for their parts – shipping the kits to the country’s U.S. embassy, for instance, or shipping the parts but not the installation instructions.
And there have been conflicts with the State Department, which has moved to stop some sales of hardware to be used by unfriendly militaries.
But if a company does its homework and seeks help to learn how to operate overseas, there can be big rewards, Desroches said.
“Nobody gets into the import-export business by waking up in the morning and saying, ‘I’m going to sell to the world,’” he said. “It’s been a lot of work, but it hasn’t been a lot of heartache.”
Reporter Bryan Corliss: 425-339-3454 or corliss@heraldnet.com.
State trade office
The Washington International Trade Division is part of the state’s Department of Community, Trade and Economic Development. It has a network of trade representatives in China, Germany, Japan, Mexico, South Korea and Taiwan. Its Seattle office is at 2001 Sixth Ave. S., phone 206-256-6100. Details on trade division programs can be found online at http://cted.wa.gov under the heading of International Trade.
State trade office
The Washington International Trade Division is part of the state’s Department of Community, Trade and Economic Development. It has a network of trade representatives in China, Germany, Japan, Mexico, South Korea and Taiwan. Its Seattle office is at 2001 Sixth Ave. S., phone 206-256-6100. Details on trade division programs can be found online at http://cted.wa.gov under the heading of International Trade.
