Tradeology, the ITA Blog

This post originally appeared on the Department of Commerce blog.

Ed. note: This post is part of a series highlighting the upcoming Hannover Messe Trade Show April 25—29, 2016. This series will highlight U.S. exhibitors that will participate in the world’s leading trade fair for industrial technology. 

Guest blog post by Bekhi Spika, Director of Marketing, Spika Design & Manufacturing 

This is your first time at Hannover Messe. What factors influenced your decision to participate this year?

Spika employees assemble a work platform in their Central Montana facility

Spika Design & Manufacturing is a growing company that has exported to 5 continents already and are planning on focused efforts in the EU, primarily in the UK. Due to available grants, our small manufacturing business was able to consider attending this show for the first time.

Why is the Industrial Supply pavilion a natural home for you?

Spika Design and Manufacturing provides industry-leading designs and high quality equipment to improve safety and productivity in manufacturing and maintenance operations. As a small business, we have the freedom to be innovative and responsive to the custom needs of our clients and excel at designing and manufacturing tooling systems for manufacturing and maintenance facilities.

Our participation in the industrial supply pavilion will allow us to develop leads in the integrator industries. We have found that we can provide significant value, and earn the highest margins, when selling custom solutions to integrators who set up automated factories.

We will be exhibiting our work platforms and support equipment, primarily those used for aerospace and defense maintenance activities. We will also highlight our ability to provide custom designed and engineered access solutions to manufacturers.

What do you hope to accomplish at Hannover Messe?

Because we provide support products to manufacturers and MRO facilities, attendance at the trade show will provide exposure for our products to customers in new markets, particularly in Europe and the Middle East. Our goal is to interact face-to-face with potential leads and start developing relationships critical for success in the closing of a sale, as well as to perform market research to determine the viability of our product in specific markets and industries.

The company has a long history of exporting work platforms and support equipment to support the foreign military and commercial markets. Over the last couple years, Spika has expanded our products to include custom tooling to major US-based aerospace companies. Based on their requirements, we have determined the custom solutions will be directly transferable to European aerospace companies.

When and how did your company begin exporting?

Spika Design & Manufacturing has been exporting since 2010, and to date, we have exported to Sweden, Japan, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Australia, and Canada, among others. Many of our sales simply come from inquires on our website.

What impact has exporting had on your company?

Exporting allows us to diversify our markets and decrease the risk of dependence on one country, one economy, or one defense budget.

What advice do you have for other American companies looking to start exporting?

We found it beneficial to start with just one or two markets and find very good agents/distributors to represent us. But it’s also important to examine potential barriers before investing much in a market. We spent quite a bit of money on one market only to determine that the tariffs will essentially keep us out of the country. With more upfront research, we could have cut that spending way back.