"Campaign urges shippers to switch from Miami airport to Immokalee"

Saturday, August 23, 2003

Campaign urges shippers to switch from Miami airport to Immokalee 
By JOHN HENDERSON
The Naples (FL) Daily News


Tom McGrath said he's growing tired of the monopoly that Miami International
Airport holds on the cargo-shipment business to Latin America. 

He said it's costing more to do business in Miami and taking longer for
shipments coming from Latin America to clear customs. 

He really didn't think there was an alternative, until recently. 
 
Collier County officials urged him to consider using the Immokalee Regional
Airport instead. 

McGrath's Kansas City-based Dean Foods, which imports and exports vegetable
and fruit products from Latin America, is among the companies contacted as
part of a fledgling direct-marketing campaign. 

"Over time, monopolies tend not to be good things in terms of pricing and in
terms of service," McGrath said of the Miami airport. "And economic
pressures are greater than ever for all sorts of companies. Certainly in our
business, there is pressure to cut costs, and to increase the speed at which
deliveries are made. We'll definitely have an open ear as to what Immokalee
may be able to do." 

The direct-mail campaign is targeted at companies that primarily now use
Miami International Airport for shipping products to the Caribbean and Latin
America. 

And it is focused only on companies with planes that could land on Immokalee
airport's 5,000-foot runway. 

Promotional materials are being mailed to 300 companies in a small wooden
crate with the words "better," "faster," and "cheaper" on its sides. One
side will have a Web site lauding "Florida Tradeport," which is a marketing
term to promote the Immokalee airport. 

The idea is to convince companies that they can move their products in and
out of the Immokalee airport faster, at a better price, than using the Miami
airport. 

"Better, faster, and cheaper is pretty much how every business likes to
work, particularly in a business like shipping," said Adam Junkroski, owner
of Id Advertising in Naples who was hired to devise the campaign. 

Some companies are facing delays to get products out of Miami's airport, he
said. 

"Basically, what we tried to do is address what we know the concerns are
going to be of the target audience," he said. 

Miami airport officials familiar with cargo operations couldn't be reached
Friday for comment about the Immokalee initiative. 

Junkroski said he is anticipating a good response for this campaign because
the marketing is targeted to companies that could use the Immokalee airport.


"Direct mail is notorious for low-return rates if it's not highly targeted.
I think we've done an excellent job of targeting this," he said. 

The campaign costs, which are about $11,000, are being shared by the
Economic Development Council of Collier County and the Collier County
Airport Authority. 

Tammie Nemecek, executive director of the Economic Development Council of
Collier County, said Immokalee's airport could clear products through
customs much faster than Miami with all of its heavy air traffic. 

She said this campaign is targeting companies that transport, using
propeller-driven planes, light cargo such as food, beverage and spices from
the Caribbean and Central America. 

Nemecek said there is a good road network to Immokalee that also helps
market the airport to these companies that need to ship the products out
after they are flown into this country. People wanting to transport goods to
and from the east coast of Florida could use Interstate 75 and State Road
29. Those wanting to head up to Central Florida could use S.R. 29 and U.S.
27. 

"You could easily access the west or east coast. Immokalee is centrally
located. Immokalee has a very robust transportation system with the
agricultural community out there," she said. "They have trucks that come in
and out daily shipping fruits and vegetables." 

Collier Airport Authority Chairman Bill West said even if the campaign
convinces only one import-export company to use Immokalee's airport, it
could make a significant dent in the budget deficit that the authority is
trying to whittle away. 

In fact, he said the fuel sales from one company doing business there could
generate enough money to pay for the operational costs of the Immokalee
airport. 

The Collier County Commission is asking the authority, which has borrowed
more than $9 million over the past decade from county coffers, to rely less
on tax dollars. 

West said this marketing effort could help further that goal. 

"They've done a good job focusing it and making it a targeted plan," he
said. 

McGrath said he believes other import-export companies that do business out
of Miami will be open to hearing the sales pitch about Immokalee. 

"We can't put our finger on any single problem (with Miami airport)," he
said. "It's more a case of particularly over the last, I'd say two years, in
which too many smaller problems have surfaced. And ultimately the sum total
of all that has not been a positive. In a nutshell, our costs have gone up
too high, too quickly, and delivery speed is not what it could or should
be." 

He said he is intrigued by the possibility of using Immokalee's airport,
which has a new U.S. Customs office under construction that in about month
will be able to clear goods that are shipped in and out of the area. There
is also a new distribution center next to the customs site that is offering
leased space to companies wanting to store products. 

Agenzia, a marketing firm in Naples, was hired to determine if there is a
market for an import-export business out of Immokalee's airport. 

Pat Forciea, president of the company, said he believes there is. 

He said the airport could be attractive to companies that import and export
to Mexico and Latin America. 

A report prepared by his company submitted to the Economic Development
Council points out the reasons why Immokalee can be very alluring to
import-export companies. 

"Companies will save as much as 25 percent of their hard costs by handling
their business in Immokalee due to inexpensive labor, land leases and low
costs to build," the report states. "Labor availability is one of the top
site-selection factors for relocating and expanding business. Immokalee's
steady employment growth alone is a large draw, growing at a rate that has
doubled the state's rate over the past three years." 

The report goes on to say that Miami is currently the international shipping
hub for Florida, with more than 50 regular international, strictly cargo
flights per week. 

"Due to lack of competition from other markets, Miami is thriving with
business," Agenzia's report states. "Without an already affordable option
right in Southwest Florida, businesses along the Gulf coast have to ship
their goods by truck to Miami for flights."

Attached Photo:

Monica Biondo, rural economic diversification manager for the Economic
Development Council of Collier County, holds a prototype of a crate that
will be sent to 300 cargo-shipping companies, encouraging them to use the
Immokalee airport instead of Miami's.

22crate.jpg