Exhibit Works Inc. has long staked its reputation on building exhibits for U.S. automakers.
Now it’s moving into China.
The Detroit-based company opened an office in Foothill Ranch in 1999 to serve Ford Motor Co.’s Premier Automotive Group and Lincoln-Mercury operations in Irvine.
Exhibit Works builds high-end displays for trade shows and other uses that can cost upward of $1 million. It has a 110,000-square-foot design facility and exhibit factory in Foothill Ranch.
The company’s expansion into Shanghai, China, is headed by Jerry Kern, vice president of international business development.
Exhibit Works has assembled a team in Shanghai that includes experts in both Eastern and Western business cultures to smooth the way for companies on both sides of the Pacific.
With a 20% annual growth rate in the Chinese exhibition industry during the past five years, Exhibit Works hopes to become a major player in that market as more cross-Pacific commerce develops.
The company is one of three partners with the new Shanghai Automobile Exhibition Center. The company brought Chinese automaker Geely International Corp. to the North American International Auto Show this year.
Exhibit Works, which counts about $170 million in annual sales, started exploring the Chinese market as far back as 2000, partly in response to auto client needs in Asia.
“It turned out to be an advantageous opportunity,” Kern said.
Exhibit Works has done work on behalf of Volkswagen,which also has a plant in Shanghai,so officials there knew that Exhibit Works had the confidence of the automotive industry.
“That carried a lot of weight,” Kern said.
Language often is a stumbling block for doing business between China and the U.S. But when Kern met a Geely representative at Auto Shanghai last year, they were able to communicate in a language they both spoke: Spanish.
The result was that Geely exhibited at this year’s North American International Auto Show,even though Geely does not yet have a presence in the U.S.
“They had one of the smallest booths, but got the most media hits,” Kern said. “The show put them on the global map.”
Kern said the company’s stock price on the Hong Kong stock exchange tripled after the show.
As a result of those efforts, Exhibit Works is working with other companies that want to exhibit at auto shows both here and in China.
The company assists in marketing and branding strategies,a relatively unknown concept in China until recently.
“China reminds me of the U.S. in the 1950s,” Kern said. “It’s just opening up and has a lot of excitement.”
Kern credits business seminars such as a recent one in OC that featured the Shanghai Business Council as an important link in making the right contacts in China.
“It’s a new experience for us finding new partners and contacts there,” he said.
While Exhibit Works quietly is becoming a force in the fledgling marketing and trade show sectors in Shanghai, Kern cautions that there still are challenges to such ventures.
For companies considering an exhibit in China, shipping, transportation and customs laws still are big hurdles.
Since the Chinese would prefer that companies build their exhibits in China, regulations and tariffs for shipping exhibits there can be steep, he said.
For those who do choose to build in China, Kern said the question of quality is a factor.
“In China, you may get a great price but not have the quality you desire,” he said.
Exhibit Works has been seeking out Chinese companies with a culture of quality to bridge that gap.
Conversely, show organizers inviting Chinese companies to exhibit here need to educate them about the U.S. market.
Aside from obtaining entry visas, which is a major hurdle for almost all international business travelers today, cost is the biggest surprise to Chinese companies, Kern said.
“They may have sticker shock when they’re breaking into the market,” he said.
Labor rates, union rules and other conditions not present in China take some getting used to, he said.
For instance, a company setting up a show in China might be able to add 50 people to a crew at the last minute. Here, union rules and wage regulations might make that action untenable.
In the Southland, Exhibit Works’ rivals include Garden Grove-based Expo 3 International, Mice DisplayWorks in Irvine, Skyline Displays Heartland in Anaheim and Exhibitgroup/Giltspur of Chicago.
Other Exhibit Works clients include Fountain Valley-based Hyundai Motor America Inc. and Cypress-based Mitsu-bishi Motors North America Inc. The company was tapped for the debut of the Raider truck, Mitsubishi’s first truck in some 15 years.
And to drive people to Seagate Technology LLC’s booth at the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas earlier this year, Exhibit Works made multicolored theater pods. Inside were all of the Scotts Valley-based disk drive maker’s products.
