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The year was 1903. Bradley Calkins' great-grandfather, Daniel Calkins, acted on his plan to expand Rochester Germicide Co.'s business beyond the United States and into Canada.
"Back then, they were still traveling by horse and carriage," says Calkins, co-CEO of the company, now called Rochester Midland Corp.
After that first step as an exporter, the company never looked back. Now in its 125th year, Rochester Midland continues to expand its international business. It sells a range of products - specialty chemicals for food sanitation, industrial cleaning and water treatment as well as housekeeping and restroom care programs designed as sustainable offerings - in some 60 countries.
Markets outside Canada and the United States contribute roughly 6 percent, or some $6 million, to total sales. Calkins expects the global division - which serves Europe, the Middle East and Latin America - to grow a little faster than domestic sales, becoming 10 percent or more of total sales within five years.
Rochester Midland spent many decades growing its business in the United States and Canada. Its Canadian segment today operates as a separate business, Rochester Midland Corp. Ltd., and employs 103 people in Oakville, Ontario.
Around 1980, Rochester Midland ventured overseas - to the Middle East. That journey began with its original product line, Sanner, for washroom hygiene and deodorization.
"We started with that product line in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait; those were our first customers," Calkins says.
In the same decade Rochester Midland opened an office in Bahrain and added agents to represent its product lines in various other countries. While expanding globally was important to the company's future, Rochester Midland moved carefully.
"Because (as a midsize business) we're not looking to make major investments overseas," Calkins says, "we do two things: We export products and we also work with licensed manufacturing partners. They manufacture our products, and we earn royalty revenue on those license deals."
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