Governor’s trade mission wraps up in Tokyo

TOKYO – The final day of the 2007 gubernatorial trade mission to South Korea and Japan meant another round of business meetings and travel around Tokyo for some, while others ventured off on a cultural mission to Maine’s Japanese sister state, Aomori.

The Maine-Aomori Sister State Advisory Council arrived in Aomori on Tuesday, and on Friday Gov. John Baldacci and his wife, Karen, joined the group and were to present the Aomori governor with a state gift – two works by Maine photographer Scott Peterman – during a visit to the Aomori Art Museum.

State Office of Tourism Director Carolann Ouellette, Department of Economic and Community Development Director John Richardson, University of Maine Business School associate professor Richard Borgman, York County Community College coordinator of grants and development Rhyan Romaine and Maine International Trade Center staff joined the Baldaccis for the trip. The entire group will return to Maine on Sunday.

Back in Tokyo, Maine businesspeople and school representatives wrapped up meetings arranged by the Maine International Trade Center, U.S. Commercial Services and the U.S. Embassy. They hailed the meetings both in Japan and South Korea as immensely helpful.

In each country, each business representative from Maine was matched with a bilingual trade specialist from U.S. Commercial Services. The specialists accompanied most businesspeople on their meetings, speaking on behalf of Maine products and services.

This is the second MITC-organized trade mission for Nick Nikazmerad, owner of Eastman Industries in Portland, which makes all-terrain lawn mowers. The last one, to the United Kingdom and Ireland, resulted in the sale of 200 units so far this year, he said.

Nikazmerad said he benefits from the research and knowledge he taps from MITC and the influence the U.S. Commercial Services offices and Embassy have when scheduling his appointments and advocating his product overseas.

“When I think about how much time and effort and money it would have taken me to try to research the top distributors in South Korea and Japan, then contact them and arrange meetings. This [trade mission] is so much more cost-effective for a small business,” he said.

Brent West, vice president and treasurer of Mathews Bros. Co., which manufactures windows and doors in Belfast, called the trip “a phenomenal education.”

In an interview Wednesday, West said he came on the trip to investigate the possibility of entering the South Korean and Japanese markets, and he found some good leads from his meetings with the Korea Building Materials Association and local architects, home builders and building materials importers.

In South Korea, most housing construction calls for commercial-grade aluminum windows, which are not a Mathews Bros. specialty, but retirement town houses would be a perfect fit, West said.

“There are enough intriguing aspects to this market to continue to pursue it,” West said.

Mark Eichenbaum, CEO of The Baggler Co. in Augusta, which makes a device of the same name that allows users to carry multiple shopping bags on a single handle, joined the trade mission to connect with distributors and direct retail operations. He also hired an independent consultant to help him set up meetings in Japan.

“I’ve had meetings today from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. One of the people we met today had said they had low interest and by the end of the meeting they were asking about minimum orders,” Eichenbaum said Thursday.

Eichenbaum sells his product in six countries already, and said he’s “hoping there’s a good chance on this trip of getting a million dollars in revenues.”

Chris Frank, CEO of Intelligent Spatial Technologies in Orono, said Friday the trip has been worthwhile and the interest companies have shown in his product – a software device for cell phones – has boosted his confidence.

Frank met with Japanese cell phone giants SK Telecom, Korea Telecom, Samsung and LG in South Korea and NTT DoCoMo in Japan. He also spoke with ValueCommerce, an online advertising agency.

NTT DoCoMo has put out a cell phone that can run Frank’s iPointer application, which allows users to identify buildings and landmarks by aiming their cell phones. Frank’s business plan involves requiring a store or restaurant to pay each time the cell phone user points and clicks at it.

“I’m hoping to return to the states and work with the [Japanese] embassy and mobile computing consortium to put together a demo of my product on an NTT DoCoMo cell phone, then come back and show it to ValueCommerce and get them interested in a trial and registration,” he said.

Ben Metivier, sales manager for Atwood Lobster Co. of Spruce Head, said Friday that his numerous meetings with seafood distributors have brought up the question of whether to expand Atwood’s live shipping business into the frozen food arena.

“There is a lot of demand for frozen business here [in Japan and South Korea],” Metivier said. “Whether there’s any profit in it is another thing. It’s very difficult to compete with Canadian prices.”

As anticipated, it will be several months or more than a year before the businesses will know whether the trade mission has boosted revenues. Before leaving for Aomori, Baldacci said he plans to hold a debriefing luncheon next month at the Blaine House for trade mission participants.