Faro ventures abroad, takes EDC's top export award

LAKE MARY -- For one local tech company, "venture capital" has meant venturing beyond borders. And it's apparently paid off: Lake Mary-based Faro Technologies has received the "Exporter of the Year" award from the Economic Development Commission of Mid-Florida.

Faro's product lines focus on three-dimensional measurements. The equipment serves a variety of manufacturing applications, from tiles on the Space Shuttle, to classical pianos and sneakers. Explains Brian Wirth, director of marketing for Faro, "It's applicable for anyone in manufacturing who wants to compare, inspect and report data ... essentially anyone in design."

Faro's international growth took off in 1998, the year Faro acquired a German company specializing in measurement software for the automotive industry.

Since then, Faro has grown to seven worldwide sales offices. The aggressive overseas expansion resulted in $15.4 million in 1999 export sales, nearly half of the company's total sales and a 21 percent increase over the previous year.

Closer to home, Faro has opened a technology center in Detroit that caters to the automotive industry.

And company founder Simon Raab says there's another new frontier looming in business-to-business applications: "We believe strongly that the business-to-business revolution ... begun on the Internet is the next big growth stage for us."

That's because Faro's measurement tools can catalog data and verify productivity at any point in the production process. The information gained can be reported back to the original vendor, another end user or to an original equipment manufacturer.

The Metro Orlando International Affairs Commission, the international office of the Economic Development Commission of Mid-Florida Inc., will present Faro's award at its International Summit on May 17. MOIAC will nominate Faro for the Department of Commerce's "E" Award and the Small Business Administration exporting awards.