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GATEWAY TO THE GLOBE
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For Numerous St. Louis Firms,
the Planet is Open for Business
By Bill Beggs Jr.
The world is our oyster. As global commerce has accelerated, The Lou has been right in the mix. For some companies,
it has helped to be smack in the middle of a continent. For
others, it’s mattered not. Location, location, location is critical to the likes of Bunzl Distribution USA. But for HOK and other firms whose stock in trade is ideas, not so much.
With trade disparities that are disheartening, if not head-for-the-hills alarming—in 2004, the U.S. ran up a $162 billion deficit in goods with China, the largest with any country, ever—it’s encouraging how many companies based here are doing their part to reverse the trend.
Rankings for this article come from the St. Louis Business Journal’s book of lists; the 15 companies are ranked by dollar value of international sales.
Here’s our glimpse at who’s doing what, where:
Along with an electric fan motor here and a refrigerator motor there, everywhere in the world, Emerson is providing the means for emerging nations to plug into the world’s economic power grid.
Many of these emerging markets are in Southeast Asia: Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia. Others are in Latin America. Then, there’s China, hard to imagine, but it wasn’t all that long ago that the world’s most-populous country was called the sleeping giant.
 Ed Monser
COO, Emerson |
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“We do have a very nice motor business, which is aligned with the global appliance market,” notes Ed Monser, COO. “But remember, a lot of what we do is infrastructure-related.”
Emerson’s global presence incorporates 150 countries. Emerging economies seek out Emerson for infrastructure solutions such as: process automation, plant
optimization, telecommunications infrastructure, reliable network power and
climate control. What’s more, established companies looking to develop overseas industry can benefit from Emerson’s
geographic and capability advantages.
Developing, connecting and maintaining data rooms has been another of the services Emerson has provided, and the electronics in a so-called “clean” environment requires precision climate control and dependable backup power. Organizations in Southeast Asia and Latin America have been clamoring for these services, which has kept the company very busy.
“All of these markets are spending a lot of money,” Monser says.
For the most part, the business has been dependable, save in Latin America, which has a more rapid boom-bust cycle that tends to coincide with political events.
In Venezuela, for instance, business ground to a halt when the current regime came
to power.
From the standpoint of a manufacturer, it’s much better when things are stable. But then, conducting business internationally wouldn’t be so exciting. Anticipating and adapting to change are hallmarks of a global player in it for the long haul, and Emerson first got its feet wet decades ago.
Bunzl has pushed a lot of paper since it was established in the 19th century, as a small haberdashery in Vienna.
Today, Bunzl Distribution is the leading
supplier of disposable paper and plastic
packaging supplies for the supermarket, restaurant, processor, janitorial and sanitary maintenance industries, as well as institutional, airline and industrial markets throughout the United States, Puerto Rico, Canada and parts of Mexico.
Bunzl USA is the largest division of Bunzl plc, an international distribution and outsourcing group with headquarters in London. The U.S. operation grew from a single location in East Brunswick, N.J., in 1981 to coast-to-coast operations by 1987, in the early 1990s relocating its U.S. headquarters to St. Louis.
Owning and operating more than 70 warehouses, Bunzl Distribution has some 2,800 employees and more than 250,000 different supply items.
North American growth is continuing outside the United States. In 2001, the acquisition of Godin, a distributor based in Quebec, extended the company’s geographic coverage of Canada. The purchase of Melissa Sales Corp., a redistributor based in Puerto Rico, has enabled Bunzl to service expanding business opportunities throughout the Caribbean.
Bunzl has three locations in Mexico: Guadalajara, Monterrey and Mexico City. Presently, the company also maintains
centers in 10 Canadian cities.
For more than a century, this company’s scientists and engineers have developed myriad ways to make life easier for millions, if not billions, of people. Some breakthroughs have resulted simply from planting seeds and watching them grow.
Founded as Monsanto in 1901, today Solutia has 35 international sites, employing applied chemistry to create solutions for
customers whose products are used by
consumers every day. Solutia has regional headquarters in Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium; Sao Paulo, Brazil, and Singapore.
The company has developed items to benefit industries ranging from automotive to water treatment, not to mention conducted research and development for the pharmaceutical industry. Here are but two examples of Solutia’s diverse array of offerings:
Films for Glass Products: A plastic
interlayer strengthens laminated glass, among other things helping to protect homes from hurricanes and automobile occupants from sun, sound and injury. In the aftermath of the worst hurricane season in recent memory, where
windows in modern high-rises were shattered, a company spokeswoman points out that Solutia is working to change building codes.
Carpet, Nylon & Fibers: Millions of homeowners have purchased wear-dated carpet manufactured with Solutia’s nylon fibers. Other products are used in home furnishings, foods and beverages, vehicle air bags, tire cord and engineered plastic components.
Anheuser-Busch International Inc. |
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So close, yet so far. Of the 15
breweries that Anheuser-Busch International operates, 14 are in China; the other is in the United Kingdom. Yet, Budweiser is the No. 1-selling packaged brand in Canada, making it A-B’s largest-volume international market.
“China presents the most potential for our business outside of the United States,” says Steve Burrows, CEO and president of A-B’s international subsidiary, which was established in 1981. In the last five years, China’s beer industry volume growth has accounted for 42 percent of the beer industry’s growth worldwide, says Burrows.
| Budweiser Wuhan International Brewing Co. Ltd, Anheuser-Busch’s brewery in Wuhan, China. |
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Last year, Anheuser-Busch acquired the Harbin Brewery Group, the No. 4 brewer in China, located in the country’s northeast region of China, which has the highest per capita beer consumption. Budweiser has been flowing throughout the world’s most populous country for 10 years.
“With regional and city sales offices throughout China, (our Budweiser operation) includes a sales force and network of 160 wholesalers that gives the brand presence in every major province in the country,” Burrows says. A-B also boasts a 27-percent equity
interest in Tsingtao, China’s largest brewer.
A-B has more than 9,000 employees in the international marketplace, most of whom are local nationals familiar with the beer industry in their native countries. Under the direct supervision of A-B brewmasters, Budweiser is locally brewed in seven other countries outside the United States: Argentina, Canada, Ireland, Italy, Japan, South Korea and Spain.
The pink bunny just keeps going... and going... here, there and everywhere. Over the past few years, you may have noticed how impeccably groomed he’s become.
Could be that, since 2003, Energizer’s portfolio has included the personal care brands of Schick-Wilkinson Sword (SWS).
Energizer became an independent, publicly held company in 2000 and today is one of the world’s largest manufacturers of dry cell
batteries and flashlights. In 150 countries, Energizer’s 10,000 employees manufacture and sell batteries—six billion of them every year. Products include miniature and rechargeable batteries, as well as an extensive
flashlight line.
SWS employs 4,000. SWS wet shave products are sold in more than 80 countries,
representing all three segments of the wet shave category: men’s systems, women’s
systems and disposables.
Two notes of interest from opposite ends of a century: In 1896, 10 years after former Brush Electric Co. executive W. H. Lawrence had formed the National Carbon Co. (NCC), Energizer marketed the very first battery for consumer use—“The Columbia,” six inches tall and used to power home telephones. In 1986, Ralston Purina Co. purchased the Eveready Battery Co., holding company of the Energizer brands.
In the last 20 years, this footwear company has had a little more spring in its step than one might expect from a venerable business that’s over 125 years old.
In 1984, Brown Group International was established; in 1985-86, a decade-long
strategic repositioning began, during which non-footwear businesses were sold and all domestic manufacturing plants were closed. Within the last five years, operations in Canada were scaled back.
The company’s international division encompasses its footwear sourcing arm, through which Brown Shoe sources approximately 75 million pairs of shoes annually via offices in Brazil, Italy, China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. This flexible structure allows Brown Shoe to source footwear at virtually any price level from any significant shoe manufacturing region in the world.
In 2000 Brown licensed its Naturalizer
and Naturalsport brand names to Grupo Moymen, a shoe manufacturer in Guadalajara, Mexico, for manufacture and distribution within the country.
This year Brown Shoe acquired Bennett Footwear Group, LLC (BFG) and added upscale brands including Franco Sarto and Via Spiga.
Last year, Belden really got wired.
The 2004 merger of Belden Inc. and Cable Design Technologies Corp. created Belden CDT Inc., one of the largest U.S.-based manufacturers of high-speed electronic cables. Belden CDT focuses on products for the
specialty electronics and data networking markets, including connectivity.
Belden CDT Inc. is comprised of five operating divisions: Electronics, Networking, Specialty, European Operations, and West Penn Wire.
At the merger, the company projected about 60 percent of sales to be generated in North America, 30 percent in Europe, and 10 percent in the rest of the world.
Results were to be reported in two segments: Electronics, representing about 60 percent;
and Networking, about 40 percent. Electronics serves such diverse specialty
markets as broadcasting and industrial automation and provides highly engineered products for the aerospace and automotive markets. Networking provides high-bandwidth metallic and fiber-optic cables and complete connectivity solutions.
Founded in 1902 by Joseph C. Belden in Chicago, the company has since stayed close to its original purpose: making wire, cable, sheathing, insulation and the like. After a move in 1980 to Richmond, Ind., Belden came to St. Louis in 1993—and hit the power switch. Belden’s growth accelerated in the mid 1990s with acquisitions both domestic and international, including companies in The Netherlands, Australia, Germany, Austria, Hungary—and Massachusetts.
Cable Design Technologies Corp. (CDT) was incorporated in 1988, with its principal office in Pittsburgh. Although some of its operating companies were more than 100 years old, CDT wasn’t resting on its laurels. In the late 1990s and beyond, it acquired a number of U.S. and foreign companies including manufacturers based in Canada, Denmark, Sweden and Italy.
Erecting prominent landmarks in The Gateway City for decades, Alberici’s cranes have been prominent features of the St. Louis skyline themselves.
Alberici began in 1918 as a small contracting firm bearing the name of its owner, John Stanislaus Alberici, along with its stated
business purpose—construction company—as its logo. Today’s Alberici is a family of
companies that offers construction and
construction-related services to a variety of industries around the world.
Alberici operates in three U.S. regions: the Midwest Region, located in St. Louis; the Great Lakes Region, located in Livonia, Mich.; and the Southeast Region, located in Atlanta.
The company’s presence extends both north and south of U.S. borders: Alberici Constructors Ltd. is located in Burlington, Ontario, Canada; Marhnos-Alberici Construcciones is located in Irapuato, Guanajuato, Mexico.
Hellmuth, Obata + Kassabaum |
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If you build it, they will come. But not before it’s been designed.
For that, thousands of organizations have sought out Hellmuth, Obata + Kassabaum Inc., global provider of design and project delivery services. HOK’s 1,600 professionals are linked across a network of offices in North America, Latin America, Europe, and Asia.
| HOK employees in the Hong Kong office celebrate the firmwide 50th anniversary. |
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HOK manages the planning, design, and construction process for all types of clients and facilities in every part of the world.
The firm may choose to meld elements from different cultures to create a unique identity, designing a building or complex that stands alone, yet is aesthetically relevant to a neighborhood. For example, the Japanese American Museum in Los Angeles. As the hub of a network of Japanese-American research and cultural institutions throughout the U.S., this modern building complements the original museum across the street in an historic Buddhist temple.
HOK has been thinking outside of the box for a half-century. Designs create elegant, graceful buildings that seem to flout the laws of gravity; they soar. It stands to reason that airports are one area of concentration: Aviation is one of more than a dozen of the firm’s specialty groups.
In recognition of its 50th anniversary in 2005, HOK provided $500,000 toward
construction upgrades, outfitting, staffing and launch of a solar-powered diagnostic and treatment center in southeastern rural Kenya. The project underscores the firm’s commitment to developing sustainable communities.
Founded in south St. Louis in 1885, this company first provided conveying and transportation equipment to area malt houses, and then expanded its product line by adding a machine that quickly soaked and washed refillable bottles. To an armchair
historian, it seems such developments would have been of great interest to a business
blossoming on Pestalozzi Street.
Things didn’t turn out that way for Thomas J. Barry, who opened a machine shop and after a while was joined by brother-in-law Alfred Wehmiller. Through the turn of the century to the middle of the 20th, the company’s capabilities expanded to include pneumatic scales, automatic bread wrapping machines and machinery to fill and close flour bags. Advances at the micro level: Labeling equipment, palletizing and de-palletizing equipment. The big picture: Developing and rolling out ideas to integrate processes in the packaging industry.
Today, with 2,400 employees worldwide, Barry-Wehmiller directs a combination of strategic acquisitions and organic growth initiatives to ensure the growth of three business platforms: Packaging automation equipment, IT and engineering consulting services, and Corrugating and sheeting equipment.
An international “network of expertise” is how Barry-Wehmiller characterizes the global system of support that each division offers. After-market services include access to spare parts, 24/7—by phone, fax or online—emergency service in the field; equipment installation and preventative maintenance; technical phone support plus standard and electronic manuals; customized training
programs right-sized to meet classroom or on-site requirements; and options ranging from upgrading to rebuilding machinery.
Insituform Technologies Inc. |
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Put this in your pipe and smoke it: In nearly 30 years, Insituform has rehabilitated more than 13,000 miles of pipe using state-of-the-art “trenchless” technologies. The company has upwards of 60 professional installation crews in North America.
The company has worked in The Netherlands, Hong Kong, Australia—and Wentzville.
Insituform has developed a process that doesn’t require digging and replacing sewers, minimizing inconvenience to businesses,
residents and commuters—digging is not required. Environmental damage is usually non-existent, restoration of pavement or landscaping is not needed, and utility services are not affected.
Even as its population more than doubled, over two decades Wentzville managed to decrease daily flow to its wastewater treatment plant by more than 555,500 gallons
per day. The job involved over two miles of pipe—13,704 feet, to be precise. And precision is the Chesterfield-based company’s stock in trade.
How do they do it? Wouldn’t you like to know. Actually, on its website (www.insituform.com) the company provides diagrams and animation that provide an overview of how crews can remediate problems, from relining a pipe to fixing a burst line.
Pity the meter reader charged with determining how much electricity is being used in a dozen locations throughout North America, Europe, Asia and South America. That would be a heck of a lot of overtime. And shoe leather.
That’s an oversimplification, of course, of just one of the three chief areas of expertise of this Clayton-based technology firm, which was spun off from Emerson in 1990. Filtration and testing systems are also part of the mix. In 2004, markets served ranged from aerospace and healthcare to automotive products and video security.
For the Communications segment, Esco’s proprietary communications technology enables utilities to read the meters of their entire customer networks, balancing the load on their systems with available capacity, meanwhile improving the efficiency of electricity distribution networks through monitoring and control.
Companies in the Filtration/Fluid Flow segment design and manufacture specialty products ranging from high-volume fuel-injection systems to unique filter mechanisms used in micropropulsion devices for satellites.
The RF Shielding and Test segment is comprised of companies that are industry leaders in providing customers the capability to identify, measure and contain magnetic, electromagnetic and acoustic energy.
For this applied technology and advanced materials company, what must have seemed a catastrophe at the time led to a new direction.
Failure to land a NASA contract necessitated a major review of its newly acquired carbon fiber business. When exhaustive research proved that manufacturing carbon fibers from inexpensive, textile-type acrylic fibers would be practicable, Zoltek set out to duplicate the properties of aerospace carbon fibers, but at a substantially lower cost. The exceptionally strong, lightweight material became financially feasible for many commercial and industrial applications.
Zoltek, founded in 1975 by Zsolt Rumy, today sells its products primarily in the Americas, Europe, Asia, and Australia. Manufacturing and selling carbon fibers used as the primary building material in many commercial products, Zoltek also makes filament winding and pultrusion equipment used in the production of large volume composite parts; and acrylic and nylon fibers and yarns used in the textile industry. Among its other offerings are nylon granules, and plastic grids and nets.
In 1995, Zoltek purchased Magyar Viscosa, a Hungarian producer of acrylic and other fibers for the European textile market.
This holding company, now based in Clayton, started in the late 19th century as a maker of saddles, harnesses and other leather goods for horses and buggies. Today, Herman Oak Leather Co. is a separate company run by CEO Robert Hermann Sr.’s nephew and is a far stretch from Hermann’s primary business: Plastic containers and packaging.
The company’s largest business unit, Anchor Packaging, manufactures disposable plastic thermoformed containers, films and sealing equipment for the food service, supermarket and packer/processor industries. Manufacturing facilities are located in Arkansas, the United Kingdom, Brazil, Argentina and Russia.
Hermann Cos. in 1999 bought a division of Rock-Tenn Cos. of Norcross (Ga.) that makes packaging for the vending industry. Manufac-turing for that division has been moved to Anchor’s plants in Arkansas.
In 1998, Anchor acquired Borden Chemical’s PVC film manufacturing companies in Brazil and Argentina. The plants have since been expanded, and Anchor now manufactures
85 percent of the film used in Argentina,
55 percent of the film used in Chile, and
35 percent of the film used in Brazil.
In 1997, Hermann divested itself of Hermann Marketing Inc., the world’s largest supplier of corporate identity programs to Fortune 1000 companies. The unit was sold to Corporate Express.
Hermann Cos. also owns approximately
25 percent of Pfingsten Corp., a Chicago-based technology-oriented venture capital firm. It is a major investor in a software
program designed to aid physicians in
prescribing medications.
What’s in a name? For the company formerly known as Computer Sales International, plenty.
CSI Leasing Inc., one of the largest independent IT leasing companies in the world, announced the name change last spring. When the company was founded in 1972, it focused on buying and selling computers. As the leasing industry matured, CSI began to focus entirely on leasing IT equipment.
Ken Steinback, chairman and CEO, says
the name change is intended for customers and prospects to better understand the
company’s business.
KEN STEINBACK
Chairman and CEO, CSI Leasing Inc. |
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“We help our customers implement flexible leasing programs that reduce the costs, risks and hassles of owning technology equipment,” says Steinback.
Privately held, CSI Leasing maintains
subsidiaries throughout Western Europe, Canada, the Caribbean, Mexico, Central and South America.
Remember when hotels actually provided drinking glasses instead of plastic cups, with a seal assuring they’d been “Sanitized for Your Protection”? CSI is also in the business of ensuring computers are sanitized, a term used to describe the removal of information from a hard drive.
CSI Leasing was the first company in its industry to perform this procedure at no charge. SecureTrack is a standard part of returns process for all PCs, notebooks and Intel-based servers leased from the company. CSI handles data disposal through its wholly owned subsidiary, Executive Personal Computers (EPC). EPC provides disposal and data security services for hundreds of other companies as well.
CULTURAL HOMESTAY INTERNATIONAL
A SOURCE OF BRIGHT, MOTIVATED INTERNS
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If you need college-educated interns at your company, and are looking to add some international flavor, look no further than Cultural Homestay International (CHI). But if you’re just interested in someone with an intriguing accent to answer phones for the next 18 months, don’t bother.
CHI has been sponsoring foreign students for educational travel to the United States since 1980 (the organization celebrated its 25th anniversary in business on Nov. 1). Dayna O’Brien, regional coordinator for the Midwest, says there are 48 trainees in her region, which incorporates St. Louis and other metro areas such as Kansas City, Chicago and Denver. Of the 48, 29 men and women are training with companies in and around the Gateway City. An important caveat: Trainees are placed in positions in their field of study or experience. Anyone working in a hotel, for instance, is likely planning a career in hospitality or marketing, not housekeeping or food service, O’Brien emphasizes.
“I have someone who’s a chemist,” says O’Brien.
St. Louis interns have hailed from Bulgaria, Slovakia, Lithuania, Hungary, The Philippines, Colombia, Japan, Brazil, Peru and elsewhere.
Companies that have benefited from having international young professionals on board include Scarbrough Logistics, Dicom Inc. Marketing Direct, The Sheraton Westport, Renaissance Grand Hotel, River City Internet Group, The Olympians, Custom Sensors, APC Direct and KDHX Radio. While companies stand to increase cultural awareness and understanding among their personnel, interns absorb
valuable practical knowledge about U.S. business that they may apply when they return home.
“They see that we’re not all that bad,” O’Brien says, with a sigh, noting that it’s win-win when an intern can hook up with a local company that has a significant international presence.
Nationwide, CHI has welcomed more than 150,000 trainees from 42 countries. The organization is sanctioned by the U.S. Department of State to issue the DS 2019 for J1 visas required for short-term work and internship programs—typically a year to no longer than 18 months. O’Brien emphasizes that interns, all of whom have a university degree, receive minimal compensation; they are required to carry their own insurance.
For more information, you may reach O’Brien at 842-2618 or chidayna@chinet.org. Or, visit www.chinet.org. |
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