Success story: Consultant becomes exporter
Denbur Inc., a Westmont-based manufacturer of specialized equipment you'll find mostly in the dentist's office, in May received the 2018 Governor's Export Award from the state of Illinois.
The company also won the award in 2014 and 2016.
Last year, Denbur was named Illinois Exporter of the Year by the Small Business Administration.
That's an impressive run for a family business that began life in 1979 as a consultant to European manufacturers of dental articulators. (If you're a dental professional, you likely know what an articulator is. For the rest of us, articulators simulate the movement of upper and lower jaws, especially helpful to dental pros during the replacement of a patient's teeth.)
Illinois, it turns out, is a big deal in the export community. According to Lt. Governor Evelyn Sanguinetti, Illinois is the largest exporting state in the Midwest - and fifth largest of the 50. Clearly, the Denbur awards mean something.
The question, though, is what moved Denbur, a successful consulting firm in the dental world, to become a manufacturer-exporter.
"We got into manufacturing in 1998," begins Vice President Sean Maissami.
Here's the tale:
• Patriarch Fariborz Maissami was a political science professor at the University of Chicago.
• His Swedish father-in-law owned a dental manufacturing company in Stockholm, but was finding it difficult to crack the dental school market in the United States. Essentially, Fariborz agreed to help; the effort was successful and, according to son Sean, who runs Denbur today, "the effort snowballed."
• When competitors inevitably arose, some allegedly copying the Denbur-distributed product designs, the decision was made that Denbur would begin designing and manufacturing its own products.
That decision turned out to be a good one. Denbur's geographic niche today covers the United States, Europe and Japan, Sean Maissami says.
Although success has been difficult to find at the consumer-focused retail level, where Oral B tends to dominate, the company's dental brushes have found acceptance in some surprising places: The beauty portion of the health & beauty aids sector (eyelashes, nails and lips); with hobbyists, who tend to need smaller, finer tools to paint the buildings and landscapes they construct; and the automotive industry, where smaller, finer can be important.
Whatever the item, the decision to export requires considerable thought. Denbur drew heavily on the awareness and skills of the late Fariborz Maissam, company founder, to reach out. Others, without a similar in-house option, often turn to Small Business Development Centers that have International Trade Centers where entrepreneurs can get a decent introduction to the ways of doing business beyond U.S. borders. - including an analysis of whether the business is ready to face the world.
The easiest way to find an SBDC that houses an ITC is to undertake an Internet search. Start at https://viewer.blipstar.com/blipstar?uid=5161672.
In addition, the state has seven regional trade offices that can be helpful.
© 2018 Kendall Communications Inc. Follow Jim Kendall on LinkedIn and Twitter. Write him at Jim@kendallcom.com. Read Jim's Business Owners' Blog at www.kendallcom.com.