In 2008, we were proud to be recognized as Indiana small-business exporter of the year. Fort Wayne Mayor Tom Henry presented the award at the sixth annual Fort Wayne International Trade Conference. At the time, 25 percent of our sales were overseas to the UK, Sweden, Italy, Israel, Canada, Mexico, Hong Kong, China and Singapore. From 2006 to 2007, we increased our export sales by 35 percent.

Export sales have continued to grow along with our domestic business, even with the changing labor, energy and currency concerns. We made it a critical point from our start up that we would support international customers, so exporting is part of our DNA. It has helped broaden our horizons in terms of benchmarking best practices among our customers, vendors and competitors. Simply put, exporting has made us a better all around manufacturer.