With the CITD’s assistance, this health and beauty company obtained a $350,000 line of credit and increased its sales by $4.8 million.
As the founder of Hollywood Style USA, a manufacturer of natural skin care, hair care, cosmetics and vitamins, Jim Ajmal has been successfully exporting his products for more than 10 years. Capitalizing on the world’s fascination with American-made products and with Hollywood in particular, Hollywood Style USA has an extraordinary reputation in the global beauty industry and with customers around the world.
Challenges
Hollywood Style USA’s business is 100 percent exporting, and Ajmal attends about six international trade shows a year, so he wasn’t new to trade shows. However, he wanted to get better results from attending trade shows and expand his market to new countries. In 2011, Ajmal attended an exporting event at the Port of Long Beach, where he learned about the Center for International Trade Development (CITD) hosted by Long Beach City College. CITD Director Cesar Arellanes recruited Ajmal to attend an upcoming trade mission the CITD was organizing to COSMOPROF Bologna.
Best Advice
Working with Arellanes and CITD Business Advisor Patty Schmucker, Ajmal attended four international health and beauty trade shows that resulted in expansion to 11 new countries and over $1.8 million in new orders. Hollywood Style USA also obtained an SBA loan for $350,000 to help finance trade show exhibits.
Client Impact
As a result of the trade shows Ajmal attended with the CITD, Hollywood Style USA’s sales increased by $4.8 million. The company has signed $1.22 million in contracts and purchase orders with distributors from countries including China, Oman, Qatar, Uganda, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Kuwait and the UAE, and is working on a deal with a distributor in the Philippines.
Since Ajmal began working with the CITD, Hollywood Style USA has added six new employees; if current growth trends continue, the company will be hiring quite a few more in 2014. “We are currently in a 23,000-square-foot warehouse and will be moving into a 78,000-square-foot warehouse next year,” says Ajmal proudly. “If we keep up adding more brands and going to more trade shows, we are projecting another 30 percent growth for next year.”
Indeed, the prospects for Hollywood Style USA’s growth are almost unlimited. “There’s a huge market out there internationally, and everybody wants American-made products. It’s just a matter of promoting them,” says Ajmal. “I salute Cesar, because he’s done something that will help to bring lots of companies more international business.”
Want to learn more about how the CITD Long Beach helped small businesses in the Beauty Industry create over $100 million in export sales? Click here: : http://www.presstelegram.com/business/20140113/small-beauty-businesses-thrive-in-exporting-with-help-from-long-beach-trade-program
