It was a tired but happy group of travellers who wrapped up the Team Atlantic trade mission to New England yesterday evening.
After a whirlwind tour of four New England states in four days, the Team Atlantic delegates were weary, but pleased with the success of the mission. Many of the representatives of 40 Atlantic Canadian provinces made deals to sell their products and services.
Trevor Sawler, President of Crescent Studios Inc. in New Brunswick, said the trade mission far exceeded his expectations. Mr. Sawler inked deals with four New England universities to sell his product, an online education and training tool.
"I came here not expecting to make a dime," he said. Instead, he reached agreements worth $30,000 US, and will return in the next few weeks for follow-up meetings with his new clients and other potential customers.
He said the deals are only the tip of the iceberg. The trade mission has furnished him with contact names, reference sites and potential clients for the future.
"It gives us an established client base in New England, which we didn't have five days ago," he said. "I'd do this again next week if it was organized fast enough."
Team Atlantic is a four-day trade delegation representing the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and Prince Edward Island. The purpose of the trade mission was to establish new business partnerships, increase trade and investment, and build strategic alliances between businesses in Atlantic Canada and companies located in the New England region.
Team Atlantic was an initiative of the Conference of Atlantic Premiers and is being funded by the Canada/Atlantic Provinces COOPERATION Agreement on International Business Development, a pan-Atlantic trade agreement between the federal government represented by the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency (ACOA), the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade and Industry Canada and the four provincial governments.
Representatives of 40 Atlantic Canadian companies met with New England companies to try to generate business opportunities in this region.
For Herb Shannon, President of Nova Scotia-based Blue Mist Pewter Limited, the trade mission got him through the door of a potential buyer that he had been trying to meet with for more than a year.
"We couldn't get a meeting with the buyer. We were trying at least 14 months to get one, and the mission organizers did it with a couple of phone calls," he said.
Now that company, with 91 gift stores in the United States, is in the process of checking out Blue Mist Pewter to see if the company will be able to provide the chain with the volume of products it requires.
"If we pass that test, they will order 1200 pieces of each product they like, which is a substantial order for us," he said.
In addition to that potential client, Mr. Shannon has made sales to seven other companies that he met this week during the trade delegation.
"If they see the product, they usually buy it. Our trouble is getting in to see them," he explained. "That was made easier through the Team Atlantic trade mission," and Mr. Shannon said "he'd go on another mission again - in a heartbeat."
Martinus Rose, President of Royalty Hardwoods Ltd. of Prince Edward Island, agreed.
I would say we'll definitely get sales out of this," he said. He is in the process of reaching an agreement with one company, and has several good leads from others.
"We've made some good contacts," he said. "You can't really put a value on that."
He said the trade mission went better than he originally expected, and there appears to be room in the New England market for a company like his.
"This market is very vibrant. Everyone is so busy."
Kevin Bussey, CEO of True North Springs Ltd. with the responsibility for marketing, said he was extremely pleased with his Newfoundland-based company's progress during the trade delegation.
"In a word - excellent," was how he described the mission. "It's provided us with the opportunity to develop new markets that we could not possibly have developed individually."
Mr. Bussey said his company's goal on the mission was to develop long-term partnerships with companies in every state, and the Team Atlantic delegation has allowed them to get started.
"We are securing partners in every state we visited," he said.
"It's sometimes difficult to gauge success with something like this, but this has been overwhelmingly successful."
The ACOA-sponsored mission began in Boston on Monday. Delegates travelled to Burlington, Vermont and Manchester, New Hampshire before finishing the mission in Portland on Thursday.