Opening the Faucet to Exporting
Located in Travelers Rest, South Carolina, T&S Brass and Bronze, a manufacturer of plumbing supplies such as faucets, fittings, and accessories, has been exporting for several decades. After growing their exports to nearly 20% of their total revenue, T&S Brass set their sights on the goal of 30%. To reach the ambitious goal, they knew they needed a dive deep into specific geographic regions.
After meeting with U.S. Commercial Service - Greenville and the Rural Export Center, T&S Brass felt RAISE Research could help them solidify their target areas. They decided to conduct a Matrix + 3 Country Reports. Between the data-driven results of the Matrix and in-country polling of Commercial Specialists, T&S Brass identified three countries on 2 different continents as promising markets for the 3 Country Reports. The final project provided research on the food service industry, water use, and commercial construction in each country and identified 34 potential partners in the three countries. T&S Brass has a very active international business team in place already, and the contacts from the Potential Partner List in the reports enabled their team to hit the ground running to pursue new buyer channels.
T&S Brass saw immediate benefit from RAISE Research as they found new companies in all three target countries, so Ken Gallagher, VP of Global Sales, requested an additional 3 Country Reports.
Gallagher stated, “The value of the research is quite incredible, as the cost to outsource a project to this level would be exponential. […] The REC analysts have done a remarkable job uncovering some extremely useful material.”
The Rural Export Center continues to partner with the U.S. Commercial Service South Carolina to provide comprehensive market research for rural companies.