Jim Harris gets a kick out of watching the promotional video for a new Kuwaiti hospital. He’s excited not only by the magnitude of the lofty $1.28 billion medical facility showcased in the sleek digital rendering, but also by the fact his company his going to be part of it.
Burke Industrial Coatings produces an anti-microbial paint that uses silver and copper to protect against more than 650 strains of bacteria. The Kuwaiti government wants to use it to line the ventilation system of the new hospital.
The initial order is valued at around $500,000 for more than 2,500 gallons of the special paint. The contractors are so eager to use the product that the first 400 gallons will be air freighted in the coming weeks. Harris anticipates another sale of 2,500 gallons to follow soon after, and possibly more still.
Burke Industrial Coatings was established in 1948, but its foray into foreign markets is relatively recent.
Harris, president of the seven-employee company, said he hopes the foreign sale to be one of many and the first step toward more business deals in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Dubai.
“For us it’s the start of a long-term growth in business,” he said. “It will triple our size.”
The company headquarters is in Ridgefield. It’s there that Harris’ business partner, Darrell Badertscher, formulates Burke’s products. Portland-based Miller Paint handles the manufacturing. Burke does about $10 million a year in sales to food, mining and manufacturing organizations and businesses like Princess Cruises and Harley-Davidson.
The Columbian wrote about Burke Industrial Coatings last October as Harris was working on a big sale in Saudi Arabia and coping with the temporary cessation of the U.S. Export-Import Bank business. The bank provides financing and loan guarantees for American companies doing business overseas. Burke Industrial Coatings was approved for the bank’s insurance just before Congress refused to extend the bank’s charter in July 2015.
Although the Senate secured a four-year reauthorization for the bank via a huge transportation funding bill last December, the bank still can’t approve sales valued at more than $10 million because its board of directors can’t establish a quorum.
The Columbian wrote about the company again in March when, amid the political infighting, Harris pivoted around the federal government and sought help from Umpqua Bank’s international division. The company had then secured a tool with the bank called a Sight Letter of Credit, where the bank works with the buyer and seller to ensure conditions of the sale are met. Once everything is settled, the payment is made.
Harris has the option of going with either his company’s bank or the Export-Import Bank. He said he will choose depending on time and costs involved.
“We’ll have to measure what is best for us in securing the payments,” he said.
