Pittsburg ? Like many smaller companies in Kansas, Hix Corp. has learned a valuable lesson: Exports equal income.

With about 100 employees, Hix manufactures equipment that puts images on T-shirts, hats, coffee mugs and other items. As the fad to emblazon shirts and caps expands, so does the demand for Hix machinery around the world.

Henri Coeme, international sales manager for the Hix Corp., talks about selling products overseas at the plant in Pittsburg. In 12 years, the company has increased exports from 8 percent to about one-third of its sales.

After the company changed hands about 12 years ago, it decided to expand its overseas market, said Henri Coeme, the company’s international sales manager.

“We were always strong in the United States but we decided to sell internationally because the U.S. market was showing signs of saturation for our products,” Coeme said. “We were looking for alternative markets for our products.”

At that time, Coeme said, about 8 percent of Hix sales were overseas, mainly Europe. Now about one-third of its sales are international, touching all continents. He declined to discuss the company’s sales figures.

“Too many Kansas companies underestimate the value of sales overseas and overestimate the efforts it would take,” Coeme said. “They underestimate themselves.”

The story of Hix reflects the state’s expanded presence on the export stage, said Paul Gallagher, Kansas Department of Commerce and Housing international trade representative.

Kansas exports in 2001 were a record $5.4 billion, an 8 percent increase over the previous year. In the past three years, exports have grown by nearly 25 percent.

Gallagher said the 2001 increase was due largely to a jump in transportation equipment exports, with food manufacturing holding steady. Together, they made up $3 billion worth of Kansas exports.

Transportation equipment, including aircraft, accounted for a record $1.55 billion, a $600 million increase over last year.

	www.kansascommerce.com

Food manufacturing such items as pet food, beef and wheat flour weighed in at $1.51 billion, down $21 million from last year. Eighty percent of that went to Japan, Mexico and South Korea.

Overall, Japan, Canada and Mexico continued as top foreign markets for Kansas, accounting for $3.1 billion of total exports. Western European counties accounted for another $1 billion.

“Europe is a wealthy region and Japan is a wealthy region,” Gallagher said. “You look at North America and it’s Canada and Mexico. Free trade has been good for Kansas, especially in Mexico.”

He was referring to the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement which opened the trading doors even wider in Mexico and Canada. Prior to NAFTA, Gallagher said, Kansas exports to Canada and Mexico were around $1 billion. Last year, it was closer to $2 billion.

	Here are the top export industries for Kansas in 2001:Transportation equipment, $1.55 billionFood manufacturing, $1.1 billionAgricultural crops, $526 millionMachinery manufacturing, $415 million

The China market continued to grow, purchasing $222 million worth of Kansas products last year, compared to $25 million in 1999.

For agricultural crops, sales were $526 million, 70 percent below the record 1996 levels. One reason for the continued decline was stiffer competition on the world market.

For instance, Gallagher said, Kansas wheat now must compete against grain grown in Canada and Australia.

While most export income came from larger corporations, there still was plenty of room for the smaller firms on the trading stage.

It’s estimated about 2,300 Kansas companies do business overseas and three-fourths of those are small- and medium-size companies like Hix.

“They are building demand for Kansas products. It’s good for Kansas because it creates jobs and brings money into the state from overseas,” Gallagher said.

As Coeme shows visitors the vast assembly area at Hix, he talks about what the company has learned about selling overseas.

For starters, he said, it takes time to develop those all-important personal relationships.

“It’s more than writing an e-mail. It takes one or two years depending on the cultural gap just to get on first base,” Coeme said.

Coeme, who speaks six languages including English, said talking the same language as an overseas distributor helps, but there’s more.

“It’s your personal relationship that makes or breaks the deal,” he said. “The product can’t sell itself overseas.”