Exporting for the long-haul - Asil Group Limited
Asil Group Limited buys and sells shells to factories in China, Vietnam, Italy, and the Philippines. A lot of the shells come from the Republic of Yemen and the Red Sea, then are made into buttons and sent to Turkey, so we get paid from Turkey, says managing director William Summerville.
On the back of that, we have always exported foodstuffs, particularly Whittaker’s chocolate, mainly to Singapore, Malaysia, and China. We are just opening to Indonesia, the Philippines, and Korea, and growing quite quickly.
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It’s important to have a strategy
We’ve had a business plan, but I actually think that a 10 or 20-page business plan is a thing of the past. A strategy is much more important.
About six months ago, our bank, Westpac, invited us to an event run by Results.com. We went along and they gave us a free four-hour session. We then we decided to go a bit further, and did a whole-day session. It’s been very good.
They do our accounting as well. Our accountant’s a young guy, and very interested in the business. Because of that, we meet every week for about an hour on a Monday morning. There’s a list of things we go through, and we review and look at where we’re going.
Focus on what you do best
I think it’s vital to be focused on what you do best. Decide what you’re going to do, stick to your core business, and try to be the best at it. That’s what we did with the shells, and food marketing.
We made the conscious decision to put more emphasis on the food business because shells are a natural product and sometimes limited. At least with the food products, we know about NZ’s image, and we know that as long as you’ve got enough cocoa beans and factories, you can keep making chocolate.
Our Big Hairy Audacious Goal is, in fifteen years, to be New Zealand’s No. 1 international branded food and beverage marketer.
Relationship building is key
I believe that the key to any business is relationships and building relationships. For instance, we’re looking at exporting corn chips. We found a little company in Wellington that makes fantastic corn chips, and we’re linking that company to the distributors we’ve got all around Asia. It’s taken us years to find, build and nurture these critical relationships.
Relationships are everything when it comes to exporting.
We gave a talk at the Export NZ breakfast recently about intermediary solutions for exporters. There are so many small companies in NZ with good product and good capacity, but exporting is daunting for them, with the freight documents, language barriers, currency, foreign exchange rate, and so on.
The one thing that I always stress when I talk to people about starting a business is that you’re probably going to lose money for the first two years. It’s very difficult to go straight into a profitable situation. You’ve got to be ready to make a serious investment of time and energy. It doesn’t happen overnight.
We actually got help from the Chamber of Commerce back when we started. I got a business lead from them very early on, and it led to selling a container of paua to Hong Kong at a $20,000 profit, which was a lot of money in those days. I figured that paid my subs for the Chamber of Commerce for the rest of my life, and I’ve been a keen member ever since.
Everyone gets something different from those types of organisations. For us, it was a good networking experience. I’m also a member of Export NZ. I think networking is really important, and you can get it from all sorts of places. Friends of mine belong to Business Networking International, which is useful for local contacts.
Tips from William
I’ve found that Kiwis like helping Kiwis. If people ask me for help, I’m always happy to go see them, and not just if there’s something in it for us.
When I hired Andrew, I went to an employment lawyer specialist, who charged me about $450 an hour for something he just regurgitated from a template. I got quite upset and was talking to someone about it, and they told me: “You know, you can go to the Employers’ Federation, or your local Chamber of Commerce, and get the same thing for nothing.” So that’s a useful tip. You do need to be a member but now nearly all these organizations are merging so you only need one membership.
There are always obstacles – exchange rate’s a really big one for us. The main way we overcome that is by selling in NZ dollars whenever we can. New hurdles continue to crop up too, with change of documentation, and duties. Yet my philosophy is that if you haven’t got any problems, you haven’t got any business!
When I started the business, a former general manager of NZ Forest Products – who I worked with for 13 years – mentored me. The most important things he taught me about were honesty and reputation. Your reputation is critical – that’s how people will decide whether or not to come to you. A reputation takes a long time to build up, and just five minutes to lose.
Business Drill-down
- Business type: International trading company
- Main products: Export marketing focusing on the Asian market
- Number of staff: 3 full-time, 1 part-time
- Trading since: 1988
- Main markets: Asia and Europe
- Website: www.asilgroup.com
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