North Carolina Small Business Grows Sales of Pickles in China, Becomes Ex-Im Bank's 500th 'Express Insurance' Customer

WASHINGTON, Feb. 27, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- With the export financing support of the Export-Import Bank of the United States (Ex-Im Bank), a small North Carolina food manufacturer will be significantly increasing sales of its signature "Miss Jenny's Pickles" to stores in Mainland China.  The sales increase is being made possible as the company that produces them, Old Orchard Foods, LLC, becomes the 500^th small business using the Bank's 'Express Insurance' product.

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Old Orchard was started in January, 2010 by two self-described "burned-out" stockbrokers, Jenny Fulton and her former sales assistant, Ashlee Furr.  In just three years the company's pickles are being sold in 1,000 stores in the United States, and now 40 stores in China. 

"The Miss Jenny's Pickles success story is one that is being repeated all across the country," Ex-Im Bank Chairman and President Fred P. Hochberg said.  "Jenny Fulton and her business partner are great role models for what can be accomplished by smart, energetic and dedicated entrepreneurs.  They and many other small-business exporters who use Express Insurance are discovering that they can seize opportunities to sell overseas, grow their sales and make sure they are paid by using export finance products that Ex-Im Bank offers."

Fulton says she expects Ex-Im Bank's Express Insurance product to result in her sales to China increasing about 400 percent.  And she plans to soon expand into Canada as well.

"Ex-Im Bank's export-credit insurance enables us to offer terms to our foreign buyers, so they don't have to pay for the whole order at once," Fulton said.  "Our export sales have permitted us to hire our first full-time and four part-time employees, and with the new orders from China supported by Ex-Im's Express Insurance we hope to turn those part-time jobs into full-timers by the end of the year."

Fulton was inspired to seek export opportunities after hearing a presentation by Ex-Im Bank Chairman Hochberg during one of the Bank's "Global Access for Small Business" forums.  Her experience that day was later recounted during a segment of the CBS-TV News program, "60 Minutes."

Express Insurance, a product launched in April 2011, provides small businesses with a user-friendly and cost-effective option to protect against foreign-buyer nonpayment and enhance access to working capital financing because banks are more likely to lend to companies if their foreign accounts receivable are insured. The policy features a streamlined application, complimentary policy quotation, foreign-buyer credit reports and buyer credit-limit pre-approvals often in five working days. Companies may apply through Ex-Im Online, the Bank's Internet-based application system. Additional information on the policy is available on the Express Insurance page on the Bank's Web site.

Old Orchard Foods is based in Kernersville, North Carolina, a town of just over 23,000 people located ten miles from Winston-Salem, North Carolina.  Global Business Solutions, Inc., an export-credit insurance broker based in Winston-Salem, explained how the policy works and helped Old Orchard during the policy acceptance process.

About Ex-Im Bank

Ex-Im Bank is an independent federal agency that helps create and maintain U.S. jobs by filling gaps in private export financing at no cost to American taxpayers. In the past five years (from Fiscal Year 2008), Ex-Im Bank has earned for U.S. taxpayers nearly $1.6 billion above the cost of operations. The Bank provides a variety of financing mechanisms, including working capital guarantees, export-credit insurance and financing to help foreign buyers purchase U.S. goods and services.

Ex-Im Bank approved nearly $35.8 billion in total authorizations in FY 2012 – an all-time Ex-Im record. This total includes more than $6.1 billion directly supporting small-business export sales – also an Ex-Im record. Ex-Im Bank's total authorizations are supporting an estimated $50 billion in U.S. export sales and approximately 255,000 American jobs in communities across the country. For more information, visit www.exim.gov.

SOURCE Export-Import Bank of the United States