Rogers Firms Recruit Chinese

Cameron Smith, president of Cameron Smith and Associates, Gary Dunn, president of Global Supplier Development and Steve Schotta, executive vice president of GSD, will lead a delegation hosting “Working with Wal-Mart Worldwide” in Dongguan, China, May 22-24.
At least 300 Chinese companies are expected to attend the conference designed to show the benefits of dealing directly with Wal-Mart Stores Inc. at every step of the retail business. Smith plans to convince the companies to set up local teams using the advantages in human resources and supplier experience available in Northwest Arkansas.
Dan Hendrix, president of the Arkansas World Trade Center, and Jeff Collins, a partner in recently formed Streetsmart Data Services Inc., are also part of De-Lap the group. The group will stay at least 10 days after the conclusion of the conference to meet individually with companies and is scheduling those sessions now.
Follow-up trips to Beijing, Taiwan and Hong Kong are also in the works.
More than 50 percent of the hard goods sold in Wal-Mart come from China, and at least 15,000 manufacturers in the country supply the Bentonville retailer.
Smith said similar future conferences are planned for India, Brazil, Mexico, Vietnam and Russia. Preliminary plans are in the works for India, but Smith stressed China is the main priority now.