Hague Quality Water of Groveport, Ohio, Is Named Ex-Im Bank's Small Business Environmental Exporter of the Year
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Hague Quality Water Inc. of Groveport, Ohio, a manufacturer of water treatment equipment, is to receive the 2009 Small Business Environmental Exporter of the Year award from the Export-Import Bank of the United States (Ex-Im Bank) at the Bank's 75th anniversary annual conference in Washington, D.C., on Thursday, April 16.
Using Ex-Im Bank's multi-buyer short-term insurance, Hague Quality Water has increased export sales by 87 percent over the past five years, aggressively expanding into fast-growing international markets with environmentally beneficial equipment that creates clean drinking water and promotes energy efficiency. The 100-employee family-owned company has been an Ex-Im Bank customer for 13 years.
Ex-Im Bank insures our receivables, and this lets us extend terms to international customers that we wouldn't otherwise be able to offer, said Hague Quality Water President Robert Hague. Our export business has been growing faster than our domestic sales. We've had no layoffs because export sales continue to grow. Some weeks, it's been exports that have kept our factory going full.
Hague said most of his company's employees work in Groveport, a suburb of Columbus.
By working with innovative companies like Hague Quality Water, Ex-Im Bank not only helps these firms create and maintain U.S. jobs, but also supports U.S. environmentally-beneficial exports to emerging markets around the word, said Ex-Im Bank First Vice President and Vice Chair Linda Conlin. I am delighted to recognize Hague Quality Water's achievements by presenting them with this award.
Hague Quality Water exports to a wide range of markets including Western Europe, Japan, Taiwan, China, Latvia, Egypt, Turkey and Ukraine.
Ex-Im Bank's 34th annual conference on April 16-17 will be held at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington, D.C. The award ceremony will take place after the April 16 luncheon program which begins at 12:30 p.m. A breakout session — Clean Technology Finance: Your Key to Global Growth — will take place at 10:45 a.m. on April 16.
For more information on Ex-Im Bank and the annual conference, including the current agenda, and to register online to attend, visit www.exim.gov.
Ex-Im Bank is the official export-credit agency of the United States. The independent, self-sustaining federal agency, now celebrating its 75th anniversary, helps create and maintain U.S. jobs by financing the sale of U.S. exports, primarily to emerging markets throughout the world, by providing loan guarantees, export-credit insurance and direct loans.
In Fiscal Year 2008, Ex-Im Bank authorized $3.2 billion — more than 22 percent of total authorizations — in direct support of U.S. small businesses as primary exporters. The Bank approved 2,328 transactions for the direct benefit of small business exporters, representing 86 percent of the total number of transactions approved. In addition, an estimated $1.1 billion of Ex-Im Bank's long-term authorizations is attributable to indirect small business exports — goods or services that are sold by U.S. small businesses to other U.S. companies and subsequently exported.