WCCO Belting “Makes Hay” at Agritechnica and RAISEs Exports

WCCO Belting is a Wahpeton-based manufacturer of custom rubber belting used in agriculture, construction, industrial, and recycling machinery. In 2019, WCCO attended Agritechnica for the 4th time, where they participated in the US Commercial Service’s (CS) USA Pavilion. With the support of the U.S. Commercial Service, WCCO Belting was able to spend more time identifying trade leads, scheduling customer meetings, and promoting new products. 

“The U.S. Commercial Service team at Agritechnica is unbelievably responsive and they make the planning process easy and worry free,” said Karley Serati, Marketing & CRM Manager at WCCO Belting. “This enabled me to focus more time ensuring WCCO employees attending Agritechnica and their guests had a high value experience.” 

A productive experience at Agritechnica was not the only success for WCCO Belting. In the spring of 2019, WCCO Belting contacted the U.S. Commercial Service North Dakota Team to conduct in-depth market research focusing on industrial equipment used in the construction, recycling, and infrastructure industries for several foreign countries. Carter Pedersen, Marketing Information & Government Relations Specialist for WCCO Belting, who had previously been an intern for the U.S. Commercial Service, was now the project manager and saw the value to be on the receiving end of the research. Based on the RAISE research and recommendations, WCCO was able to narrow the scope of initial target markets to certain countries that had the greatest need for the products. Once more, it allowed them to focus on developing and researching customer requirements of the product, thereby accelerating their time to market and product development. “RAISE research was a key part of our product development process and helped form the basis of our marketing/sales strategy while saving WCCO time and resources” said Carter Pedersen. The company used STEP grants administered by the North Dakota Trade Office for both the Agritechnica program and the RAISE research project. The grant enabled WCCO Belting to approach the markets with their eyes wide open.

For more information on WCCO Belting, click here to view their announcement of their new products or here to view their website. To request your own customized RAISE research, contact the U.S. Commercial Service at Heather.Ranck@trade.gov. For more information on the U.S. Commercial Service, go to export.gov/northdakota.