A couple of weeks ago, we (John Loveday, DEM’s MD and the creative force behind many of our designs, and Jane Barr, leading on overseas marketing) visited the USA. This was a whistle-stop tour, crammed full with visits and meetings across a number of States, and following up contacts made through Linkedin and other media over the previous 9 months or so.
The aim – to talk to potential manufacturers, distributors and investment experts, to try to identify manufacturing capability and possible distribution chains to service both DEM’s own product range and the cages we produce for BatFast for their installations of cages with simulators into the leisure sector.
We started in Texas with a couple of meetings – one in Dallas with an existing customer who has one of our bespoke (though in the US, they don’t say ‘bespoke’, they say ‘custom’) baseball cages in his garden (‘backyard’), and who is potentially interested in marketing these.
Then onto a meeting in Fort Worth with a possible manufacturer, picked at random from the US version of the Yellow pages, who could certainly undertake manufacturing of cricket and baseball cages (though in America, it’s a baseball ‘tunnel’, not cage). The temperature in Dallas was a very warm 86 degrees, so it was a shock to the system to arrive in Milwaukee, Wisconsin where the temperature was at least 30 degrees lower and it even snowed!
Milwaukee is beautiful; the leaf colours in the autumn (‘fall’) are stunning and the houses all dressed amazingly for Halloween. It was a great meeting with a possible manufacturer / distributor, who took us back to our hotel via the edge of Lake Michigan.
Next stop Phildelphia, Pennsylvania, to meet with the Vice President of the Delaware Prosperity Partnership to explore the possibilities and benefits of relocating our US Company from Florida to Delaware.
And finally, a long train journey to and from New Brunswick in New Jersey, to watch a real live cricket match between the New Jersey Barons and the Jersey Knights. One of the Barons’ players is the son of the chap who founded cricket in New Jersey, and is interested in selling a range of cages to schools and clubs.
Many miles travelled, long flights and train journeys crossing time zones and climates, we arrived back exhausted but excited by the opportunities.
We’ll keep you informed of progress and developments.
As always, feel free to contact us on 01354-610353 if you have any questions or enquiries about anything we do.