NC Business's Canada Strategy Boosts Sales

Linortek, based in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, is a manufacturer of Internet-enabled devices for remote control and data acquisition of industrial equipment.

Since 2019, Linortek has been in contact with the U.S. Commercial Service (CS) in Greensboro regarding Canada, as the company has a long history of selling to the country through eCommerce shipments. As the taxes and other import costs of Linotek’s shipments were being passed on to their Canadian customers, Linortek believed that streamlining and reducing these costs would generate more sales. Looking for a method to accomplish this, Linortek approached CS Greensboro.

CS Greensboro communicated with CS Canada, which then presented options for Linortek to consider, including the possibility of becoming a non-resident importer and further information on the topic. After deliberating over their options and discussing with other North Carolina trade assistance partners, Linortek ultimately decided to become a non-resident importer in Canada.

Linortek informed CS Greensboro that, since they became a non-resident importer, Linortek’s eCommerce sales to Canada have increased by 30%, and that their overall sales revenue since 2014 has increased by nearly thirty-fold. Linortek credits the U.S. Commercial Service as an instrumental part of these successes.

“Linortek has benefitted tremendously from the expertise of the U.S. Commercial Service. The export assistance we’ve received is second-to-none and has contributed significantly to Linortek’s success in growing sales revenue from $48,000 in 2014 to $1.3 million, with exports representing 18% of total sales revenue.”
Liyu Nalven, Linortek