50 Favourite Exporters

WA

MetroCount

•         Exporting since: 1997

•         Key markets: US, UK.

MetroCount attended its first overseas trade fair in 1997, which led to the launch of MetroCount UK and MetroCount USA that year. Winning a tender to provide traffic analysis software to the Turkish National Roads Administration in 2003 was another major win for the company, which now exports to around 80 countries.

MetroCount’s vehicle traffic counting/classifying equipment and software supports almost all languages, and given the company’s experience in building a strong domestic presence, despite their isolation in WA, general manager, Vern Bastian, says this has translated well for export sales. He also cites the acceptance of Australians and how we do business as a way of getting ahead in export.

With export revenue at around $2.5 million, Bastian believes the company’s exports should grow well beyond the current 30-40 percent, and says by 2010 exports to the UK and US combined should be surpassing the domestic market.

Risktec Australasia

•         Exporting since: 2002

•         Key markets: South East Asia, the Caspian region, Africa.

Venturing into markets where others fear to tread, Risktec is more than your average education provider. Founded by Stuart Manifold, Risktec boasts an experienced team of incident and emergency response professionals whose aim is to provide training and education services to the oil and gas industries in developing nations. The company began exporting from the moment of inception and found business in difficult, sometimes hostile, regions.
In 2005, Manifold made a breakthrough in Azerbaijan, a former Soviet Union country. After a journey of more than three days, Manifold made a presentation to a major client and won their business, making Risktec the only accredited company of its type operating in the Caspian region today. These days, exports account for 93 percent of turnover.

CustomVis

•         Exporting since: 2005

•         Key markets: Asia, Middle East.

CustomVis is a company with vision—laser vision, that is. The manufacturer produces the world’s first solid state laser for refractive eye surgery, which founder Paul van Saarloos says is a large technology leap over current products in the industry.

The company’s first sale was to a Korean surgeon, a former colleague of Saarloos, and since then CustomVis has used highly focused sales techniques to establish themselves in new markets before expanding. In this manner, the company hopes to advance into Europe and South America through business they’ve started in those regions. Exports from the last financial year totalled $2.5 million (more than 90 percent of overall sales).

Their success has brought out the worst in some competitors, with one rival company falsifying bankruptcy documents to convince a customer to cancel their CustomVis order, but it seems that CustomVis already has a view to continuing success.

Fundi Software

•         Exporting since: 1998

•         Key markets: 30 countries on all continents.

With their name taken from Zulu, meaning ‘expert’, Fundi Software is one of very few companies that develops software for IBM’s mission critical, high performance mainframe systems. So while you may never have heard of this little West Australian company, you’ve probably used their product, which is distributed under the IBM brand.

Fundi began in the early days of the information age when founders David Mierowsky and Steve Pattinson set up the company in 1982. However, it wasn’t until 1998 that they began exporting. The power of Fundi’s specialist technical knowledge and the reach of the IBM market and global distribution channel made for a prosperous combination. In 1998, exports comprised less than 5 percent of the company’s revenue, but in the last financial year the turnover from export was more than 99 percent.

Smart Burn

•         Exporting since: 2007

•         Key markets: New Zealand.

Although new to the export game, Smart Burn was set up around an internationally patented and environmentally-friendly fire product that when placed in a domestic wood heater allows the smoke and sap to burn in the fire rather than travel up the chimney and into the atmosphere.

By improving the combustion in the fire Smart Burn reduces smoke and particulate emissions by up to 50 percent, up to 17 percent extra heat is gained, it cleans the heater glass window and cleans the chimney of any flammable sap and soot deposits, reducing any fire risk. Because of its great public support and environmental success, Smart Burn has gained 18 national and state awards.