Hisham Fawzi sells a machine that produces water out of thin air. It sounds like science fiction, but the Water Finder is real, affordable, and quenching the thirst of customers around the world. For Fawzi’s company, Excel Holdings of Leesburg, Virginia, 2001 has been a very good year. In the past six months, Fawzi has made sales of $35 million and $50 million, and now has distributors covering 13 international markets.
And right now, he’s dealing with a problem that most businesses would love to have. “My product is easy to sell, but it can be difficult to meet the demand,” explains Fawzi. He maintains rigorous customer service standards, and recent sales are keeping his distributors busy. But Fawzi is trying to build his international business slowly $85 million in recent sales can be called slow.
Fawzi acquired the original patent from a Florida inventor who came up with the machine’s basic design. He then worked with the University of Maryland’s environmental engineering department to improve and refine the Water Finder; he now has six pending patents and has developed a larger version, the Aquasphere, that can produce 5,000 gallons of pure drinking water a day.
Because Fawzi relies on his distributors not only to make sales but also to provide ongoing customer care, “its crucial to find the right distributor. If they fail, I fail,” he says. Fawzi’s insistence on the most qualified and reliable distributors led him to the U.S. Commercial Service and its Northern Virginia U.S. Export Assistance Center. There he learned that trade experts both there and in the international markets he was considering could help him make the contacts his business needed.
Trade specialist, April Redmon, suggested that Fawzi use a Gold Key Service to enter the Asian market. Commercial Service officers in Singapore identified promising potential distributors and set up meetings for Fawzi with the best prospects. “The Gold Key makes things much easier,” says Fawzi. “I feel stronger when I’m selling, and the buyer senses that legitimacy.” The result? A distributorship agreement that covers the entire region and includes sales of $50 million. Fawzi went on to do a Commercial Service-supported trade mission and show in Mexico–“our booth was really crowded,” he remembers of his first trade show. Again, big sales resulted.
Fawzi’s advice to other U.S. businesses is to set a goal and then get out and sell. “Respect for U.S. products is strong, regardless of politics,” he says. Too many U.S. companies, according to Fawzi, are apprehensive about selling globally. “The longer U.S. businesses wait to sell outside the U.S., the bigger an advantage we give to other countries,” says Fawzi. “It’s a global market. We have to get out there.” And don’t expect your customers to come to you, he cautions. Travel, and lots of it, is essential for the small exporter.
For Excel Holdings, meeting international demand for fresh water will be perhaps the biggest challenge. A deal with the Whirlpool Corporation to manufacture the WaterFinder units, as well as tentative plans to open a new manufacturing facility in Virginia for the Aquasphere units, mean that Excel Holdings will continue to rise with the export tide.
