Jay Sachetti joined Jeff O’Brien, partner at Husch Blackwell and Dyanne Ross-Hanson, president of Exit Planning Strategies talked about the market for mergers and acquisitions, exit planning opportunities for companies that don’t end up for sale and how companies can maximize their eventual sale price during an early October panel at the first Upsize on Tap event at Summit Brewing Co. in St. Paul.
When the state Legislature passed a law requiring employers to provide paid leave and safe time for employees, Justin Bieganek started hearing differing details from friends, colleagues and peers.
INFORMER :: GLOBAL BUSINESS
?One country at a time?
is Ergotron?s strategy
to expand in Asia
Ever since Mark Ellson, a colonel in the U.S. Army Reserves, got back from serving in Iraq last year, he?s been driving hard to expand Ergotron Inc.?s business in Asia and the Pacific Rim.
The company has entered Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, China, Japan and South Korea, and this year will enter India. Based in St. Paul, Ergotron makes ergonomically correct accessories for computers. ?Every country?s just a little bit different,? he says. ?It?s been a bunch of hard lumps.?
?I think you can have a whole conversation about just Japan,? he says, adding that Americans like to move fast, but that doesn?t always go over well in Japan.
?You better create an entity in Japan,? he says. ?It?s mainly for respect. They?re noticing you?re here for the long haul. They view an American company that has an office, that it?s there for the long haul.
?Once you?ve built that trust you?re amazed at the doors that will open.
?The other thing that American companies don?t understand is localizing their products,? he says. ?The Japanese view their product as the product and the box. If it has a smudge on the box in Japan,? resellers don?t want it.
And you need your instruction manual to be written in Japanese only, not three or more languages as so many are, he says.
The path in other countries has been smoothed by Ergotron?s relationships with computer companies such as Dell and HP, and with distributors. ?What?s helped Ergotron is we?ve had a joint venture with a Chinese manufacturing presence since 2001.”
Ergotron should generate $12 million revenue next year in Asia and the Pacific Rim, and $30 million to $50 million there by 2010. Ellson figures Ergotron Asia could be a $150 million division eventually.
The company as a whole posted $48 million in 2004 and is on track to hit $150 million in 2007. That?s since the St. Paul-based company refocused from a ?configure to order? manufacturer of ergonomic computer accessories to a mass-market seller using distribution channels. (Read more about that strategy in the November issue of Upsize.)
?We invented in 2003 a technology that provided lift in the screen at an economical price,” Ellson says. It?s called ?constant force technology,? and it provides the same function as a gas spring that holds open the trunk of a car. Usually that costs $2.50 a spring; Ergotron?s costs 50 cents. They rolled it out in 2004 and business has exploded since then.
Mark Ellson, Ergotron Inc.: 651.905.4865; me*****@******on.com; www.ergotron.com
