Firms Recognized for the Innovative Ways They Promote Exports : Enterprise: World Trade Assn. of Orange County honors companies large and small for the ways they changed focus and increased profits.
Aviation Distributors built its business around the sale of spare parts to airlines. But the Irvine company scored a coup last year by dealing in bigger commodities: whole airplanes.
The company, without help from a foreign intermediary, bought two used Boeing 707 freight jets from Air China and, in turn, sold them to Jordan. That $6-million deal, combined with a upsurge in export sales, earned Aviation Distributors an award Thursday night from the World Trade Assn. of Orange County.
The association, in ceremonies at the Sutton Place Hotel in Newport Beach, honored several local companies and individuals for their efforts in promoting exports.
Aviation Distributors was typical of the kind of companies that won the awards. It saw its foreign sales more than triple in two years by dealing with customers in nations like South Africa, Ethiopia, Italy, England, Scandinavia, Philippines and Brunei.
The association also gave an award to Gardner Systems Inc. in Santa Ana for its successful conversion from defense contractor to private-business exporter.
Gardner Systems started as a developer of computer-based products for the testing market, the association said. Sales were made only to U.S. defense contractors at first. Now, though, “Gardner Systems produces systems for testing materials under stress and fatigue, as well as earthquake simulation systems,” the association’s commendation stated. The company also has developed ways to test exotic metals for the aerospace industry.
The noteworthy small-business manufacturer was Advanced Control Systems of Santa Ana, maker of drilling and routing machines for the circuit-board industry. Its export sales soared 136% last year from the previous year, contributing to a 92% increase in total sales for the company.
Wonderware Corp. in Irvine, maker of software for industrial automation, was the medium-size business winner for having doubled the size of its European headquarters in Amsterdam late last year and opening an Asian operations center in Singapore.
The winner among large businesses was Fluor Corp., the Irvine-based engineering and construction giant. Its overseas sales climbed 26% last year. Overseas contracts accounted for half the company’s sales.
Kott Koatings in Lake Forest, which sells franchises for sink and bathtub fiberglass refinishing, won the award as service company of the year by expanding its foreign franchises to 27 nations, up from nine in 1992.
The minority business of the year was Kingston Technology in Fountain Valley, which designs and makes products to upgrade the capabilities of computers. It grew from its founding in 1987 to offer 1,600 products and garner $800 million in sales last year under President John Tu.
