Global network plugs Southland traders into opportunity.

Global network plugs Southland traders into opportunity

David Dales was looking for a buyer. His trading company was working with a Southland firm to sell its product overseas. He advertised in the World Trade Center Association's "Network" system and within hours he had received inquiries from all over the world. The ads eventually generated about $300,000 worth of orders.

Dales is one of approximately 400 Network users in Southern California, plugged into an electronic trading service offered by the World Trade Center Association to its members.

"It ties in 109 World Trade Centers and 4,800 users around the world," said Chris Hagmann, Greater Los Angeles World Trade Center Association director of information systems. "The biggest hurdle Network has to overcome is informing people that it exists. Once people know it exists, they're believers."

Dales, president of Dales International Trading of Bell-flower, called Network "the best of all the computer databases offered." The U.S. Department of Commerce's "TOP" (Trade Opportunities Program), for example, is a daily listing, as reported by U.S. embassies and consulates worldwide, of what equipment and services private companies and government agencies want to purchase. But it does not contain offers to sell.

"The brochures [for other databases] offer the world," said Dales, "but the only one that came through was the World Trade Center Network."

All a Network subscriber needs to enter the world trade loop is a computer and a telephone modem. The system itself is composed of three parts. The first is electronic conferencing which allows users to send messages to any World Trade Center. Messages can be directed to specific "electronic mailboxes" which correspondents can access 24 hours using a private code.

"A three minute phone call to Tokyo costs $7," said Hagmann, "a one page fax is $4.50. To send one page through Network costs $1.50."

The second is a database of member companies, including company and product descriptions, bank references, WTC affiliation, addresses and telephone numbers. Accessing that information costs $2 per search.

Network's third service is an electronic bulletin board which displays more than 400 trade leads daily: the one which put Dales in touch with his overseas buyer. There are offers to buy and sell everything from lentils to dry scrap batteries to art masterpieces to cement, wine and lasers.

Services are also represented: a German telemarketing service, an Indonesian personnel recruiting firm, or perhaps a Dutch marketing company. There are also ads for joint venture partners and investors: past offers have included deals for ecological equipment in Bulgaria or tap water in New Zealand.

"These are all valuable leads because everybody on the system is a member of the WTCA," said Hagmann. "Everybody's a bona fide trader; there are no market researchers or hobbyists." The steadily expanding network recently added Moscow and Berlin to its list of subscribers.

Hagmann said he and his worldwide counterparts act as agents for members and contact each other to fulfill requests from members. "They all know who does what," said Hagmann of his colleagues.

A republishing program extends the life of selected ads: local Word Trade Centers publish them in their newsletters and also supply a number of leads to local newspapers. Dales' ad was republished in Chamber of Commerce periodicals around the world and he's still getting inquiries from his year-old ad.

An ad that runs globally for 14 days costs $33. All users see ad headlines and can call up the copy on a particular ad for 35 cents. "I've been working with bulletin boards for eight years and this is one of the most effective ones I've seen," said Hagmann.

It was on the bulletin board that Delvin Shrout saw the ad for chicken feet.

"My partner and I got a good laugh out of it," recalled Shrout. "But the next day we called the person in Cleveland who placed the ad and ended up getting a lecture -- she was selling the feet to China. A relationship developed and we are now partners. Through that partnership we've generated about $130 million in sales."

Shrout is executive vice president of Erickson & Shrout International, a Long Beach-based international commodities trading firm. He meets many of his suppliers and manufacturers through the Network system. "I take great pleasure in getting up every morning and going through the trade leads. You never know what you're going to see up there," he said.

Shrout encourages small businesses to take advantage of the extended market Network makes available. "Most small businesses do not see the rest of the world as a market because they're too small," he said. "That's not true. International trade is a big swap meet. Anyone who doesn't take advantage of international markets is missing 80 percent of their available market." Said Hagmann, "People make money."

Tim Wallace did. President of Basic Food Flavors, a Pomona-based manufacturer of soy sauce and food additives, Wallace wanted to expand his business overseas. Nine months ago he advertised on the Network system and a month later had an order from Taiwan for 14,000 lbs of vegetable protein.

Calling Network "probably the most economical way of hooking up with overseas customers available," Wallace is no longer advertising. "We've had to stop doing the ads because we got to the point where we're maxed out on production," he said. "We can't make as much as we get orders for."

PHOTO : Networking: A new telecommunications system set up by the Greater Los Angeles World Trade

PHOTO : Center Association allows traders to find international markets simply by using their

PHOTO : computer modem