Californians Mine for New Gold in Europe

For Californians who want to sell the world computer software, kidney dialysis machines, trendy casual wear and a host of other products, the people who are paid to know offer a piece of advice: Go east. A long way east--to Europe.

“I look at the growth industries, California’s strategic industries that are feeding the state’s economy today and will keep feeding it over the next five years, 10 years. And Europe is the largest export market,” said Trudi Schifter, managing director of the European offices of the California Trade and Commerce Agency.

The two outposts, which opened in London in 1987 and Frankfurt, Germany, two years later, have the mission of prospecting for foreign investment and helping California companies that are aiming to crack the European market in its broadest form, from the British Isles to Russia.

The offices’ eight employees function chiefly as matchmakers--”90% of our focus is in hooking up potential business partners with one another,” said Schifter, who is based in Frankfurt.

Yearly, the offices work with up to 700 small- and mid-size California firms, helping them choose the best trade show to attend, seeking answers to queries about European product standards or potential markets, searching for a local partner, importer or agent.

The services are free, and all companies whose products are at least 51% California-made are eligible to use them. The goal this year is to attract an additional $100 million in foreign investment and generate $50 million more in exports for California manufacturers.

“We welcome companies in any industry that wish to get involved in the European market,” Schifter said. But she cautions that they’ll need the savvy to do business in one of the most competitive regions on Earth, as well as an export-ready product. Her agency can’t supply either of those.

For Skunk Technologies of Santa Monica, a software company founded in 1995, Schifter and her co-workers held meetings to talk about the product, potential European investors and partners and arranged for Skunk’s participation in a London trade show. Staff members also landed appointments with potential European customers for Skunk’s invention, a user-friendly program that enables a salesperson to assist and take orders from customers shopping on the Internet.

When Skunk’s president, R. Anthony Bell, came to Europe in May, he pocketed orders from two large German companies, auto maker BMW and media conglomerate Bertelsmann, to set up pilot projects for their Web sites.

“From the moment my plane landed at [London’s] Heathrow to the moment I left Munich, and that was about three weeks, not a single response was negative,” Bell recalled. Convinced that the El Dorado for computer software is now Europe, Bell plans to return this month to follow up.

“If you’ve got a solid product ready to market, the reception you’ll get in the Netherlands, France, Germany, Scandinavia is second to none,” Bell said. “The economies in Europe are stronger now, and when you look at the convergence to a single economy, with that expanded growth, there is going to be an enormous demand for new technologies.”

The Trade and Commerce Agency’s European offices focus on industries where the state is deemed to have a strategic advantage: information technology, communications, entertainment and new media, biotechnology and medical devices, textiles and fashion, aerospace, food processing and the environment.

But staff members have helped companies selling products as varied as bulk almond oil and sportswear.

Each October, two special forums are held in London, one for California information-technology companies that are seeking “strategic partners” in Europe, the second for biotech firms.

For many of California’s 20,000 info-tech firms, European may be the difference between life and death, Schifter said. “Research shows that if the company is not in the two major markets [the United States and Europe] in the first 12 to 15 months, they aren’t in the profile of the winners,” she said. But her message to the state’s businesses cuts across all categories.

“For California products, Europe is the largest potential export market in the world,” Schifter said. “How can you ignore that?”