Made in the U.S.A., sold in China
SnowPure President Michael Snow says his company ships its water purification products to 49 different countries today, including China.
SnowPure President Michael Snow, demonstrates analytic capability in the product testing area at SnowPure in San Clemente. The company ships its products around the world, including to China.
San Clemente-based SnowPure ships its water purification products around the world, especially to China.
Hannah Duong, an intern at SnowPure, measures the quality of new technology at SnowPure in San Clemente. SnowPure creates and exports up to 90 percent of their water purification modules to 45 countries.
Finished electrodeionization (or EDI) modules at SnowPure in San Clemente are ready to be wrapped and shipped around the world.
Excellion, an ion exchange membrane, goes through a patented extrusion process at SnowPure in San Clemente.
By Christopher Yee | cyee@scng.com | San Gabriel Valley Tribune
January 11, 2014 at 11:54 a.m.
MISSION VIEJO – While on vacation in China over the summer, City Councilman Dave Leckness did plenty of sightseeing and visiting with his daughter, who lives there.
At the end of the two-week trip, Leckness visited the U.S. Consulate General in Shanghai and found inspiration.
Everyone at the consulate had the same advice for Leckness to take back to Mission Viejo: If you want to help your city, get small businesses there to start exporting their products to China. It was simple – many Chinese citizens have money to spend, and American businesses have quality goods and services to sell.
Still, the proposition is a big one for small business owners, so Leckness organized a public information session in the fall that brought together export experts with about 70 South County business owners.
AN EMERGING MARKET
While large American corporations have sold their products in China for decades, small and mid-sized businesses are comparatively new to the game.
Countries like China and India are seeing their middle classes grow, and their increased wealth is prompting a desire for products and services from U.S. companies, according to Nick Vyas, director of the Center for Global Supply Chain Management at the USC Marshall School of Business.
"For small and midsize businesses, there's huge opportunity in emerging markets like Greater China, which includes Hong Kong," Vyas said. "If you ignore those markets, you'll miss on tremendous growth."
According to Vyas, the economic growth trend in China – and the desire for expensive American goods considered to be of higher quality than those produced locally – is expected to continue for the next 15 to 20 years.
One of those sought-after products is milk. After an estimated 300,000 babies were made sick by tainted baby formula in 2008, the popularity of American milk skyrocketed in Greater China, according to Greg Schneider, executive vice president of Hidden Villa Ranch in Fullerton.
Hidden Villa Ranch has been exporting its ultra-pasteurized milk, sold under the California Sun brand, for more than 25 years, though it's only been sold in Hong Kong for the past seven years. Ultra-pasteurized milk has a shelf-life of 100 days, so it travels well.
The key, Schneider said, is finding a trustworthy partner overseas that can help navigate the paperwork and bureaucracy.
"You need a partner on that side," Schneider said. "You can't do it all from this side. But the person you're dealing with, you have to make sure they have the proper resources there."
Michael Snow, whose San Clemente company SnowPure has sold water purification products in China for 10 years, spoke at the Mission Viejo event about the importance of "guanxi." The word, which describes someone's personal networks of influence, has no direct English corollary, but Snow said "trust" comes closest.
"It's just like American networking but more deeply rooted," Snow said. "We do networking as kind of a separate thing, but in fact good businesspeople in China network with people they count on, and that's essentially guanxi."
GETTING THE WORD OUT
Lake Forest City Councilman Dwight Robinson is organizing an event similar to the one in Mission Viejo. As owner of a business that exports agricultural commodities like corn, hay, soy and wheat to Asia and the Middle East, the issue is familiar to Robinson.
"Given all the logistics, I can understand how it'd be really scary for a small business," Robinson said. "If we can help demystify it, we can help business owners feel more comfortable with it and create more success stories."
Jim Mayfield, a commercial officer at the U.S. Commercial Service's export assistance center in Irvine and one of the speakers at the Mission Viejo event, said his organization is there to help now.
The U.S. Commercial Service, an extension of the U.S. Department of Commerce's International Trade Administration, exists to help explain the exporting process and make it easier for business owners, Mayfield said.
Meanwhile, Leckness, himself a small business owner of Kwik Kopy Printing, continues pushing to get the word out to the business community in South County.
"My goal is to inspire business owners to do something," he said. "I hope I've given someone enough inspiration to last 10 years. This is where the future is, China, and I want people here to be a part of it."
Contact the writer: 949-454-7310, cyee@ocregister.com or @ChrisMYee on Twitter
Christopher Yee | reporter
Christopher Yee is a reporter for the Pasadena Star-News and San Gabriel Valley Tribune covering cities in the west and central parts of the San Gabriel Valley. He grew up in Monterey Park and studied journalism at East Los Angeles College and UC Berkeley. You may find him at Dodger Stadium or at the Staples Center for L.A. Kings games.
cyee@scng.com
Follow Christopher Yee	@ChrisMYee
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