How Two Cobb Exporters Are Weathering the Tariff Storm With Solutions, Flexibility

If COVID-19 didn’t break them, neither will a little trade disruption.

That’s how two exporters based in Cobb County are thinking about the early days of this most recent trade war, a time of upheaval where it’s unclear which proposals will move from bluster to policy — or which policies when enacted will prompt retaliation from key partners. 

Some 90 percent of inputs, from glass bottles to chemicals, for Arylessence come from abroad, but the privately held American manufacturer of fragrances and flavors has built its globally competitive model based on fast, flexible service for customers in any of the 65 countries it serves. 

Arylessence develops custom formulas in-house for its retail partners and needs just three days of lead time to deliver a scent anywhere in the world. 

“We learned this during COVID: that when you’re unable to get the things that people want, you figure out what you can give them, … and that was incredibly successful for us,” Cynthia Reichard, president of the privately held company, told an audience at a Global Atlanta Export Stories evening, sponsored and hosted by the Cobb Chamber. “We were literally working 24 hours a day, seven days a week because we had solutions.” 

Ms. Reichard sees a similar dynamic at work in dealing with the volatility of trade and tariff turbulence: adaptable companies will be the ones that win out. 

“If you will not just quit and say, ‘Oh, now I can’t do this, or this is going to be too expensive,’ but come up with a solution, then people will come to you,” she added. 

Wei Siong Tan, a Georgia Tech-trained Ph.D. in electrical engineering, is similarly focused on solving problems with Accusentry, which he started in the mid-1990s by commercializing imaging technology used for missile targeting. The company provides high-speed camera systems designed to improve assembly lines for non-woven products like baby diapers and sanitary pads. Accusentry has sold systems to factories in 47 countries, from Colombia to Dr. Tan’s native Indonesia. 

“If you focus on the problem, your brain is just drawn onto the problem alone,” he told a rapt audience of business leaders. “Always stand back and look at it, and there is always a solution and there is always a way.”

Finding Your Global Niche

That advice pertains to exporting, which both companies encouraged despite the fact that many U.S. firms see the prospect of selling overseas as a non-starter, especially at a time of such uncertainty. 

The promise of the global market is huge for those who take the necessary precautions, ensuring they staff up correctly to deal with increased regulatory and logistics hurdles, as well as cross-cultural communication, says Ms. Reichard. 

Arylessence was pulled more heavily into exporting as its customers, especially candle and air care retailers, began moving factories to China, following the migration of glass production there.

“We were just basically shipping to Mexico and South America and Canada. That was about all that we did,” Ms. Reichard said of the company’s business 15 years ago. “But when the manufacturing went to Asia, we had to follow, so we very quickly had to learn about that market.”

Export sales now make up about a third of the company’s revenues, creating a complex supply chain in which Arylessence imports the components and chemicals it needs from 180 countries, works its olfactory magic, then exports a highly concentrated fragrance to Asia and elsewhere — often just in time for that candle or air freshener to be sold back into the U.S. market. 

The company found its niche, becoming the top producer of EPA-regulated fragrances in the world by bringing its chemists to bear on some of the industry’s most painstaking tasks. 

“We became the people who didn’t mind doing the thousands upon thousands of titrations that it took to do all that testing,” Ms. Reichard said. 

Dr. Tan was similarly pulled into exporting after it became clear that diaper factories would be distributed around the world. Assembly lines that once could churn out 5 units a second the 1990s are now producing 20. Given the bulk of the finished product, it started to make more sense for producers to be closer to population centers to help lower logistics costs, he said. 

“So we said, Well, what else can we do? We have no choice but we go overseas,” Dr. Tan said. 

AccuSentry began pitching itself as not just an asset for quality control, but an investment in process control. By recognizing when highly tuned machines were starting to go slightly off of spec, AccuSentry’s cameras could prevent imperfections and waste before the problem arose. 

That move helped the company become the “king of a small pond,” Dr. Tan said, embodying approach he encourages engineers and entrepreneurs adopt: solving hard problems in a defined market. 

“The secret, I think, is it create a raving fan. Whatever customers you serve, serve them with all your heart, with all your might, and make sure they fall in love with you, head over heels,” he said. 

That creates customers who become your advocate in the marketplace. 

Practical Pointers for Selling Abroad

Exporting certainly isn’t for the faint of heart, both executives said, noting that their healthy balance sheets and deep expertise in an esoteric area provide insulation from some of the challenges other exporters face. 

Both companies have the luxury of healthy balance sheets, which helps them qualify their customers — and even reject some. This also means they can demand to be paid in U.S. dollars to avoid the risk of currency translation. Operating at the high end of their respective markets, both firms command premium pricing that is less sensitive to a stronger U.S. dollar, which tends to hurt other exporters. 

Making an American product is still an asset from a branding perspective, they agreed, and U.S. companies continue to enjoy a significant advantage over markets where business is less predictable and transparent. 

“The climate is good to start a business. There’s a lot of support. There’s a lot of transparency, all the rules and regulations, and all we need is an idea,” said Dr. Tan. 

But Ms. Reichard noted that companies should recognize that an international order takes about 30 percent more work to process, in part due to the need for certificates of origin and other documentation. As its overseas business has grown, Arylessence has hired in freight forwarding professionals to avoid shipping snafus, which carry significant risk financial risk.

“Nobody wants to send $150,000 worth of material and get it stuck in a Chinese port because somebody did not fill out a piece of export paperwork properly and have to have it destroyed,” she said. 

She added that it’s vital to have staff with language capabilities. Currently Arylessence is looking for a Vietnamese-speaking sales professional to bolster its growing business in that country as its partners open new facilities to diversify away from China.

AccuSentry is finding itself meeting with customers more frequently in Central and Eastern Europe, areas of the European Union that have become competitive manufacturing hubs. 

As for dealing with tariffs, Ms. Reichard said (speaking before the second wave of 10 percent tariffs on goods from China China) she had absorbed the first 10 percent and would be looking to decipher concrete policy amid the “noise.” Most of her suppliers are eyeing some sort of presence in the U.S. to get around the tariffs, which could end up bringing some of the company’s supply chain closer to home. 

“I’m of the mindset that no matter what, COVID was worse, and we will figure it out. One thing that we know as a company is we will find a solution,” Ms. Reichard said. “Falling apart over it’s not going to change a thing. So we have to work together, and we’ll find a way.”

Dr. Tan was similarly sanguine, even optimistic. He told a story in which a client company was forced to pay a cyber ransom in bitcoin, then had some of the seized cryptocurrency left in its bank account. When prices rose, the company’s bitcoin stake ballooned to more than the value of the ransom it had just paid. 

“There’s always a silver lining in everything,” Dr. Tan said with a smile. 

For Arylessence, the future smells pleasant: The largest privately held fragrance company in the U.S. is now undertaking a $40 million expansion of its factory in Marietta — the seventh since the company was founded 47 years ago by Ms. Reichard’s uncle.