Locally based businesses Fruiticana and Safe Software picked up first-place awards last month from the Surrey Board of Trade for their significant involvement in international importing and exporting.
According to the Surrey Board of Trade, nominees were judged on a variety of criteria including marketing strategies, innovative techniques, brand development, production capability, advanced technology and quality assurance.
Fruiticana, which does more than $100 million in yearly sales, won first place in the large-business category, while the small-business prize went to the one-of-a-kind tech company Safe Software.
On the surface, the two winners couldn’t be more different. Fruiticana distributes sweet and juicy produce from the tropics; Safe Software provides spatial mapping data for geographic information systems (GIS).
But when it comes to operating in worldwide markets, it turns out, there are some common denominators between the two.
For example, both companies were born out of necessity.
Fruiticana president Tony Singh said some of his more exotic products (sugarcane, Indian yams, guavas, Indian spices, lentils, etc.) were in-demand items that weren’t readily available in Western Canada until he brought them in. To meet the needs of the growing Indo-Canadian community in B.C., Singh said they had “no choice but to search.” And they have.
Fruiticana, which originally sourced all its products in the Lower Mainland, now stocks 99% of products from such countries as India, Pakistan, Thailand, Australia and the Philippines.The company’s export portfolio is almost as impressive, ranging from Vancouver to Winnipeg to California to Singapore and Hong Kong.
Similarly, Safe Software began after being unable to move spatial mapping data with the B.C. government back in 1993.
“We thought, ‘There must be a piece of software that does that,’” said co-CEO Don Murray. So he and Dale Lutz took it upon themselves to fill the niche. Twenty years later, Safe Software is the industry’s global leader, doing 90% of its business out-of-country.
With partners throughout Europe and Australia, Safe Software is a small business that experiences the global market like few others.
Both companies have also experienced the power of a brand when working with international clients.
Safe Software is the maker of FME, which most leading GIS and database vendors rely on to move spatial data for the maps their customers use. FME is used by thousands of customers (including Google, Microsoft and many more) in more than 116 countries and has become the household name in the industry.
Meanwhile, Fruiticana has made it a goal to provide specific brands for its clientele. The company now offers difficult-to-find specialty brands such as Parle-G, Dabour, Tiffany, Panchranga and Golden Temple Flour. To add to the Fruiticana brand appeal, the privately held company has also been awarded an Ethnic Produce Business Award from Business in Vancouver and the coveted Consumer Choice Award of Canada.
But more than any other similarity, both companies agree, it’s about people.
“It comes down to finding good partners,” said Murray about his company’s success. “The countries we do well in now are the countries [in which] we’ve found good partners.”
In the tech industry, the best partners have the time, knowledge and contacts, he said. Despite technology’s interconnectivity, Safe Software has found it still takes someone on the ground to represent the organization locally and to conduct face-to-face meetings.
