Mainstream Engineering’s QwikProducts(TM) Unit Experiencing Significant Growth in Latin America
Florida SBDC at UCF Assists With Export Marketing Plan Service
September 28, 2016
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Hal Thayer, Communications Director, FSBDC at UCF, 407.420.4850 or hthayer@ucf.edu
Orlando, FL – Mainstream Engineering’s president and founder Dr. Robert Scaringe has built a successful, diversified corporation offering research & development project work; military, commercial and retail products; professional engineering services, and lean manufacturing. Every corner of the company is working to realize its mission: providing “Solutions through Advanced Technology” by transitioning advanced technology into high-quality and cost effective products.
Based in Brevard County, Florida, Mainstream Engineering serves a broad range of customers including the government, private enterprise and individuals like you and me. And they are an American company through and through, headquartered in the U.S and proudly manufacturing all their products in the U.S.A.
One of their business lines, QwikProducts™, produces heating, ventilation, air conditioning and refrigeration repair products for the technicians who work on HVAC systems, refrigerators and walk-in coolers, among others. QwikProducts are sold through trade wholesalers across the U.S and have been extremely successful in this country. However air conditioning and refrigeration repair is a worldwide business and Scaringe wanted to take his solutions global, starting in Latin America.
To that end, he initiated an in-house market study of the markets in Central and South America. Soon enough, he and his team knew what they wanted to do and had some ideas about how to do it. But they didn’t have enough of the data necessary to make decisions and felt like they didn’t have all the expertise they needed either.
It was then that Mainstream Engineering’s QwikProducts turned for assistance to the Florida SBDC at UCF’s International Trade Services team led by international trade specialist Jill McLaughlin. Specifically, they asked McLaughlin to revise and improve Mainstream’s Export Marketing Plan. Developing Export Marketing Plans is a service provided by the FSBDC in partnership with Enterprise Florida and the U.S. Commercial Services in which the FSBDC develops a comprehensive, data-driven, tailored export marketing strategy for qualified Florida small businesses. The Export Marketing Plan is a customized plan which includes extensive industry research and market analyses to identify recommended target markets; a review of overseas trade opportunities; and an action plan.
The improved Export Marketing Plan was just what QwikProducts was looking for. With access to data that would have otherwise been extremely costly for the company to obtain without FSBDC’s services, McLaughlin provided market size, competitive information and other international marketing metrics to identify where the economics were and what countries made sense, even adding some countries that Mainstream’s team hadn’t considered. “The Export Marketing Plan told us what we needed to know,” remarked Scaringe. “How big the markets are; which countries are growing, which countries aren’t; where it’s safe to do business and where it’s not.”
With the completed Export Marketing Plan in hand, superior products and a strategy of using the home country’s language in all sales materials, packaging, training, and on a dedicated website, QwikProducts foray into Latin America has been a major success for Mainstream. “We’re really, really happy with the way it’s going,” says Scaringe. “Our year-to-date revenue is more than twice last year’s and last year’s revenue was several times larger than the year before.”
“It was a very good experience working with the FSBDC,” concluded Scaringe. “It was easy. Jill McLaughlin was very helpful and very professional. The quality of the Plan was excellent. Everyone had the same goal: to help us sell our product. And that’s exactly what we did.”
About the FSBDC at UCF
With its main office in the National Entrepreneur Center located at the Fashion Square Mall in Orlando, the Florida SBDC at the University of Central Florida (FSBDC at UCF) is part of the UCF Office of Research & Commercialization and the Florida SBDC Network (FSBDC Network). THE FSBDC at UCF provides business seminars and no-cost, one-on-one business consultation to emerging and established businesses. The FSBDC at UCF serves an eight-county area that includes Brevard, Flagler, Lake, Orange, Osceola, Seminole, Sumter, and Volusia counties and maintains 10 service centers across Central Florida.
In 2015, the FSBDC at UCF served almost 7,000 entrepreneurs in Central Florida through consulting and training, resulting in more than 7,300 jobs created, retained or saved; $990 million in sales growth; $74.4 million in capital formation; $101.7 million in government contract awards; and 111 new businesses started.
About the FSBDC Network
The FSBDC at UCF is a member of the Florida SBDC Network, a statewide service network funded in part through cooperative agreements with the U.S. Small Business Administration, Defense Logistics Agency, State of Florida and other private and public partners. The Florida SBDC Network is hosted by the University of West Florida and is nationally accredited by the Association of SBDCs. All opinions, conclusions or recommendations expressed are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the SBA.
For over 35 years, the FSBDC Network has nourished a statewide partnership between higher education and economic development organizations, dedicated to providing emerging and established business owners with management and technical assistance, enabling overall growth and increased profitability for the businesses and economic prosperity for the state. The FSBDC Network is a statewide service system of 41 centers with 60 outreach locations, including the FSBDC at UCF.
In 2015, the Florida SBDCs served almost 45,500 entrepreneurs and small business owners through consulting and training, resulting in 217,849 jobs created, retained or saved; $29.3 billion in sales growth; $947.4 million in capital accessed; $2.1 billion in government contract awards; and 3,857 new businesses started.
FSBDC at UCF | 3201 E. Colonial Drive | Orlando, FL 32801 | p 407.420.4850 | f 407.420.4862
sbdc@ucf.edu | www.sbdcorlando.com
