< work
Posted on Apr. 25, 2006
By DANIEL C. BARTEL
Special to the Star-Telegram
Seven years ago, Fort Worth business owner Wil Garland went to
China for a company that made hygiene and beauty products. It
suited him. The pay was good, the locale exotic, the work clean
and fairly interesting.
Next month, Garland is setting out again for China as a member
of a trade mission seeking Chinese connections and markets for
North Texas companies.
The business he now runs thrives on buckets of grease, spark
plugs,handlebars, metal, and rock music. His company, American
IronHorse Motorcycles in Fort Worth, could find a niche among
Chinese consumers, he said.
Other Dallas-Fort Worth business owners are interested in their
companies doing the same. Garland is one of 12 other Metroplex
business owners - seven from Fort Worth, five from Dallas -
embarking on a trade mission to China in May. The group will
split its time between Shanghai and Beijing.
Garland is scheduled to meet with Chinese distributors
interested in selling his custom motorcycles. If time permits,
he'll also meet with Chinese vendors, possible suppliers of
parts and raw goods. American IronHorse manufactures some parts,
but most of them are shipped to the Fort Worth plant.
The Fort Worth International Center, which is sponsoring the
trip with the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce and the Dallas
Chamber of Commerce, has done the legwork in setting up
appointments with Chinese contacts.
"Each company going on this trip has it's own agenda. We're
helping fulfill that," said Sigi Frias, director of the Fort
Worth International Center. China's growing power as an
industrialized nation is spreading its economic reach worldwide.
It is the world's largest country by population with more than 1
billion residents.
Its growing demand for oil is one reason that prices have
continued to climb. It has become one of America's largest
sources for imported goods. And it is increasingly seen as a
market for U.S. goods.
Fort Worth-based BNSF Railway recently opened a freight shipping
office in Shanghai to help it gain business as Chinese goods
flow to California ports before being shipped inland. Much of it
comes to BNSF's intermodal terminal at Alliance in far north
Fort Worth for shipment by truck.
American IronHorse has more than 100 workers who each day pour
into the 224,000-square-foot plant to make custom bikes. Every
motorbike is made-to-order and includes accessories such as
ostrich-skin leather seats and unique paint schemes.
Each bike can cost as much as $35,000 - higher for collector's
edition bikes. It may not be a mass product for China 's
billion consumers. But expanding industrialization in China is
creating a growing group of consumers with the income to buy
specialty and luxury items.
"If it makes you look cool and shows you have money, then
there's a market for your product," said Jahyeong Koo, an
economist with the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas.
The present-day Chinese economy resembles what the U.S. economy was
in the early 1900s. However, China's currency, the yuan, is
gaining value. China was the world's fourth-largest economy in
the world in 2005 (sixth in 2004), and its GDP has been on a
tear, averaging 9 percent growth each year for the past
three years, according to the National Bureau of
Statistics of China. Most economists agree that the
Chinese economy is red hot, although it is expected to
taper off in the coming years.
China's size makes stepping off a plane and doing deals without
education or guidance daunting for any business owner, said
Jim Bradbury, a partner with Jackson Walker in Fort Worth. The
sheer size of some cities is enough to scare business owners.
Shanghai, home to more than 17 million people, is equivalent to
six Manhattans set side by side, Bradbury said.
"You can't believe it until you see it, and you can't deal with
it until you're there," he said. Bradbury, like others going on
the trade trip, speaks of China with urgency. The speed at which
the Chinese economy is moving is beyond anything seen before, he
said. More Chinese companies are catching the entrepreneurial
spirit by building their own products, slapping brand names on
them and selling them. Eventually, U.S. companies could be
competing with the Chinese for everyday products, such as furniture,
household goods - even hygiene and beauty supplies.
"The change that's on the way is happening so quickly, it won't
give us time to adapt. There's nothing like this in the books,"
Bradbury said.
Obviously, there's need for caution. Chinese business remains
under the watchful eye of a communist regime with the authority
to enforce and change regulations without a lot of notice. The
Chinese government has become more pliable through the years,
showing a willingness to change from a centralized Soviet-era
economy to one driven by market forces. Still, there are land
mines to be aware of, said Sandy Pohfal, with Commonwealth
Properties in Dallas and part of the upcoming trade mission. He
also has projects in China.
"You can't just go plucking there, otherwise it's liable to
pluck you," he said.
For now, American IronHorse doesn't view China as an immediate
business need. The 11-year-old company has done well, grossing
about $100 million in 2005 and posting consistent double-digit
growth. The company plans to hire more workers and expand its
facility, Garland said. It's good to get into China now with
other companies doing so, he said. Harley-Davidson and
Mercedes are among a few high-end automotive and motorcycle
companies doing business in China. More are likely to follow.
China still has a lot of growing to do. Less than 1 percent of
the Chinese population is able to afford specialty items, he
said. If nothing else, Garland expects that his new contacts
will provide guidance on how to tap into this thriving
market while it's still young, he said.
|
