basic-guide-to-exporting_Latest_eg_main_086196

Success StoryPreparing to Succeed onthe Road AheadGiant LoopThe CompanyHarold Olaf Cecil was in his early forties whenhe decided to start his own business in CentralOregon. His initial investment: $2,000. That wasback in 2008, just in time for the Great Recession.Six years later, he and a team of five employeesare making world-class equipment carriers formotorcycles. Giant Loop is now in 21 countrieswith sales growing 20 percent per year.Cecil has been riding motor bikes since hewas a kid. Rugged trails in Oregon requiredrugged equipment. Problem was—there wasn’tequipment available that was rugged enough.The metal boxes and racks, for example, wouldbreak. Plus, they added weight which made thebikes unstable. So his first product was the GiantLoop Saddlebag made of ballistic nylon. It washorseshoe-shaped and wrapped around behindthe seat, bolting to the plastic fender and sidepanels of the bike. Because his designs positionweight closer to the center of the bike, it addedstability. Giant Loop now has 25 products, rangingin price from $16 to $700. All are made in theUnited States, except some specialty strapsfrom Canada.His biggest markets after the United States areCanada, Germany, Australia, the UK, and SouthAfrica. After that it’s Chile, Colombia, Brazil, andPortugal. He also has sales in Italy, Latvia, all theScandinavian countries, and Iceland. A distributoragreement in Japan is imminent.The Challenge“Everything is a challenge,” says Cecil. “That’s whatmakes it fun.” The biggest challenge was gettingthe first few international orders. The companyis growing with 70 percent of the business in theUnited States; 30 percent international; 20 percentvia the web, mostly B2C and domestic. He saysthat strategically it’s important to have a mix ofinternational and domestic.Another challenge was finding a manufacturer inthe United States. Luckily, Cecil had experience inthe outdoor industry and used those contacts tofind companies in Arizona and California to makehis products. There aren’t many of them, he noted,166U.S. Commercial Service • A Basic Guide to Exporting