Best and brightest.

Even the smallest of companies can export just like a global giant. You don't even have to be Chinese. All it takes is speed and quality, as tiny Mexican lighting company Nocturna has learned.

After a year in business and with just a dozen employees, the company is exporting to the United States, Costa Rica, Uruguay and Canada. In 2005 it expects to sell in Europe and to other Latin American countries, aiming to raise annual sales to US$1 million. "We want our products to go head-to-head with Asian exports in a fight that's down to a difference of pennies," says Adrian Delgado, Nocturna's chief. The company in 2004 posted sales of $300,000.

Nocturna does not have economies of scale, but it can get to its markets fast. In 2004, the company began to sell through Costa Rica's Insol Comercial, focusing on making better-looking products than its Eastern competitors. "Nocturna has three advantages over the Asians: quality, quick delivery and price competitiveness," says Luis Miguel Roque, sales director at Insol Comercial.

Nocturna has also had good luck selling in the United States. "We are interested in products that are not from Asia," says Stephen Gottlich, business manager for U.S. interior decor company Illuminology. "Being from that part of the world, they understand the local market, as well as being close by to the United States." In January the Mexican company got a distribution deal to sell its products in Canada through retail giant Wal-Mart.