About Us
Global Trade Specialists, Inc. was founded in 1991 by Mike Genung;
the company’s original name was MG Trading & Development. Mike
had worked for an importer/distributor of machine tool products
from 1981 – 1990 and had extensive experience in international sales
and marketing, product development, and importing from countries
such as China, Taiwan and Japan. He took his first buying trip to
Mainland China in 1986 when China was still a new frontier economically
and has been to China many times since then.
The company’s focus in 1991 was to help U.S. and Canadian distribution
companies import machine tool products and measuring tools used
in the metalworking industries (automotive, aerospace and all machine
shops) from China. Many of the factories we worked with had to possess
technical expertise, as some of the gages we sold had tolerance
requirements at the micron level (millionths of an inch.) A number
of our customers were large distributors, (some of who were publicly
traded and had annual sales in excess of USD$200 million per year)
who imported container loads of precision tools, cutting tools and
gages of many types though us.
The business grew quickly, and in 1994 we created and developed
our own MG line of machine tool products. The flagship product was
a line of tool grinding machines with a retail value of $4,000.00
that we bought from a company that was getting out of the business.
Sales of the tool grinders grew and by 1998 we were selling several
hundred machines annually. In addition to the tool grinders we developed
our own line of precision gage block sets and precision tools that
we imported from China and warehoused in the U.S.. We sold the MG
lines to an international distribution base of customers in North
America, Europe and Asia.
In 1998 the decision was made to sell the MG line and then focus
solely on helping other companies import their products from China.
China’s industrial base had grown substantially in the 90’s and
our Chinese friends there gave us the ability to source a wide variety
of products. The MG line was sold at a profit and the company’s
name was changed to Global Trade Specialists, Inc.. Since then our
sole mission has been to help companies import their products from
reliable manufacturers in China.
Today we have customers in the U.S., Canada, the U.K. and Australia,
and have sourced a wide variety of products. We have 3 sales companies
that we work with that are based in Qingdao, Ningbo and Shenzhen,
China. From these regions we have access to much of China’s industrial
base.
Even though we have processes in place to do our best to insure
that you get a shipment without quality problems, having worked
with both U.S. and Asian suppliers over the years we know that problems
can sometimes arise no matter how hard everyone works to avoid them.
If you get a shipment of product in that isn’t to spec then we work
with the factory to get any defective product replaced.
Our experience in developing products from print to part and bringing
them to market successfully is a plus to you; we sometimes give
our customers pointers on how to get a product line up and going
and what pitfalls to avoid. We know that if you’re successful we’re
successful, and we strive to build relationships with our customers
for the long term. We enjoy helping our customers succeed.
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