Company Taps Into Overseas Market
National Diversified Sales Inc., a Camarillo maker of products used in golf course and landscaping drainage and in plumbing systems, realized it had untapped marketing potential when it learned last year that its pipes and valves were being used as part of a religious ritual in an Arabian mosque.
Thousands of worshipers were washing their feet several times a day in a huge pool that was drained by plastic equipment produced at the NDS plant on Mission Oaks Boulevard. “When we got that news, electric lights started flashing in our heads,” said Larry Van Noye, NDS vice president for marketing and international sales.
As a result, he said, the company has set up a worldwide marketing network in hopes of expanding its revenues, now running at $14 million annually. In the next few months, NDS sales people will attend golf and landscaping trade shows in Paris, Singapore and other foreign cities. The company also has launched marketing efforts in Latin America.
Though overseas sales have doubled in the past year, they still amount to less than 10% of the firm’s revenues, Van Noye reported. “Our goal is to double that part of our business again in 1994.”
Van Noye credited the Export Small Business Development Center, based in Oxnard, with helping NDS launch its overseas campaign. He said the center has provided help in dealing with freight forwarding, tariffs and other matters. NDS, founded in 1972, has 100 employees. The privately held concern doesn’t disclose its profits, but Van Noye said sales have doubled in the past five years.
