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Sticking to What Works Best
How a Bethany chemical company has ridden exporting to nine-figure sales success
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Business New Haven
11/6/1995
By: Kevin Wheeler
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Laticrete International of Bethany is a landmark company - the Sears Tower, the World Trade Centers, the Empire State Building, the Chrysler Building. And the list goes on, all the way around the globe.
Globetrotter and President David A. Rothberg says Laticrete is “basically a one-industry company. Our job is to provide the products and services for the installation of ceramic tile, marble and granite, whether it's in your kitchen or in the tallest building in the world. That's all we do. But we do it everywhere in the world.”
With the development of polymer chemistry after World War II, founder Henry M. Rothberg, a chemical engineer, developed new products and trademarked them as Laticrete. Those products could install tile and stone in thin sections, faster and lighter. Previously, installing tile, marble or granite required two inches of sand and cement - heavy, thick and labor-intensive.
Laticrete has been international from Day One nearly 40 years ago. Rothberg Sr. saw Europe as a lucrative market and took his formula overseas. Today the U.S. consumes roughly one-tenth the per-capita consumption of a European country, Rothberg says. The United States is one of the smallest markets in the world for ceramic tile.
Rothberg Sr. was ahead of his time, creating a corporate culture that has been instrumental to Laticrete's international success. Rather than showcase his products in English, gallons and pounds, he produced multi-lingual literature and technical information in metric units.
Says Rothberg: “We saw, and still see, American companies with great products, great technology, that don't change. They don't change the thread or the fitting to metric sizes, or they don't produce their catalogues and literature in the languages of the people they're trying to sell to.”
For years, Laticrete merely exported to its overseas markets. In the last decade, though, the firm has added people abroad to provide technical support, sales people and manufacturing.
It's a complex sell, explains Rothberg. “There are three decision-making bodies. One is the professional architect or engineer. Another key leg is the distributor. And a third is the contractor, the person or firm who actually uses the product. So the challenge, is making the architect, engineers, comfortable with our company as much as the technology. We call on Cesar Pelli in New Haven; he's familiar with the Laticrete name, and he gets the award to do the tallest building in the world in Kuala Lampur [Malaysia]. We alone are able to have a technical person on the site in Kuala Lampur the next morning.”
Rothberg gauges success of marketing by dollar signs, market share and prestige of clients. “In a depressed market like Mexico, you may not be able to get a lot of dollar signs right now. But you want to be getting the largest portion of the market, so that when it recovers you will at least be starting with a third of the slice of the pie. The other one is the prestige of your clients. We were chosen as the only poxyadhesive approved by the London Underground, the largest, oldest, most sophisticated metro operator in the world.”
In many cases, Laticrete's product is the most expensive available, acknowledges Rothberg. “We consider ourselves, and the world has agreed, that we are the Mercedes-Benz of tile and stone adhesives. We say we will give the best value. - cost divided by the time, or the utility of the installation. There are cheaper ways to do it, but they will not last as long or have as low maintenance costs as our system.”
Rothberg keeps his finger on the pulse of other markets, monitoring if they're going to be in a position to use tile, marble and stone. While Connecticut's economy may be on life-support, Malaysia may be booming. It must work: Laticrete's estimated revenue for 1995 is $100 million, Rothberg says, growing steadily at 15-17 percent annually.
And Laticrete now has four U.S. factories. Bethany, though, remains “the mother plant,” Rothberg says. “We produce a lot of the products and secret concentrates, to which the satellite plants then add local sand and cement, which are heavy and low-value. But all of our plants buy product from Bethany. It has value, like Coca-Cola syrup, if you will.”
Rothberg believes American businesses shy away from international markets historically because “they are complacent or satisfied with their domestic market. More Americans are comfortable going to California or Chicago to sell their product than getting on a plane, flying to a different culture where they speak a different language, maybe the food's a little weird, and you have to read up on customs so you don't goof up.” But if people, whether they're making pens or have a service here, have got a good, high-quality product, there is a hell of a market for it out there.”
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