Headquarters City -- Big Firm Moves Here -- Malaysian Giant Picks Seattle For U.S. Effort

A Malaysian conglomerate - the largest in Southeast Asia - has chosen Seattle as its beachhead for its second major attempt to enter the U.S. market.

The company is Sime Darby Group, an organization with a colorful history. It owns 210 subsidiaries in Malaysia, Hong Kong, Macao, Singapore, Brunei, the Philippines, Japan, Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States that do everything from assemble BMWs to develop property. One represents The Boeing Co. in Malaysia. Sime Darby's annual sales total about $2 billion.

The Seattle operation is Sime Health, which initially will market latex gloves and condoms produced by Sime Darby's Plantations and Commodity Trading division, a maker of a broad range of rubber products.

But Sime Health President Helen Marieskind makes it clear that if events proceed as planned, imports of other Sime Darby products - and exports of U.S. goods to Asian markets - will follow.

"Our full intent is to become a full-line trading company," said Marieskind, a native of Christchurch who holds both U.S. and New Zealand citizenship and a doctor of public health degree from the University of California at Los Angeles. "There are 210 companies in this conglomerate and they would all like to be in this market."

Already, she said, she is being bombarded with requests from a sister company, Sime Darby China, which is searching for new markets for its textile and health-care products.

But before that, Marieskind has two other major tasks:

-- To consolidate offices in New Jersey, Florida, Ohio and Toronto under the Seattle office of Sime Health.

-- To establish Sime Health as a preferred supplier in the glutted latex-glove market.

There are now 20 employees at Sime Health's Seattle office, located at 1200 Sixth Ave. S. beside a new freeway ramp near the Kingdome, and another 80 or so employees in the four other offices. The total number may grow or shrink, depending on the findings of a review of operations that is now under way, Marieskind said.

But there seems little doubt that the Seattle office will expand over time. Floor space in the office-warehouse complex has been doubled to 12,000 square feet and the company has begun looking for suitable land for its own needs and possibly as a commercial real estate development.

"All purchasing and shipping will be done out of here - if it's economically feasible," Marieskind said. She is negotiating with the Port of Seattle on rates for the approximately 20 20-foot containers of goods she expects to begin importing monthly.

Marieskind believes Sime Health will be one of the relatively few survivors in rubber gloves because the company controls its operation from the rubber plantation right through to the finished goods.

A current concern, she said, is research to determine an acceptable level of natural protein in finished latex gloves because of severe protein allergies that have developed among some health-care workers.

Marieskind anticipates sales in the U.S. and Canada of $15 million to $20 million this year.

Besides the U.S. and Canada, the Seattle office will also be responsible for Central and South America. Marieskind said she plans to travel there soon in search of partners who could help build an import base.

Marieskind said the company has options on some new U.S.-designed "latex products in the contraceptive line."

Marieskind first became involved with Sime Darby four years ago, helping the company set up a condom factory. While heading her own company she worked with Sime Darby, then when the conglomerate decided to tackle the U.S. market again, Marieskind was asked to head the Seattle office.

Though Sime Darby is a Muslim-run company, Marieskind said being a woman has proved no drawback.

"It's a fantastic opportunity," she said. "How many companies of international significance have women in senior management? In the plantations division there are three or four of us, including the finance director, a key position."

Marieskind said she asked Dato (the Malaysian equivalent of Sir) Mohamed Sulaiman, director of the plantations division, during his recent visit to Seattle why she had been asked to head the office. He replied, "I'd be bloody stupid not to hire somebody if I thought that they could do the job, wouldn't I?"

During his visit, Sulaiman said that although Sime Darby was the strongest company in its home region, top management believed the U.S. and United Kingdom markets had too much potential to be ignored.

Besides selling its own products here, Sulaiman said Sime Darby would be on the lookout for U.S.-made goods to export.

The company was founded in 1910 when a Scotch accountant named Sime and an English engineer named Darby began a rubber plantation on 500 acres of land in what was then a British colony.

Later, the company added heavy machinery to its business operations, acquiring a Caterpillar franchise in 1939. In the 1960s and early '70s the company diversified more broadly.

By this time, company headquarters were in London, while most operations were centered in Malaysia - a situation the now-independent Malaysian government viewed somewhat dimly. The government staged a stunning dawn raid on the London Stock Exchange and Sime Darby directors ended up jobless.

Company headquarters was promptly moved back to Kuala Lumpur, where it remains. Today, the 12 directors include six prominent Malaysians and the prime minister of Thailand.

Besides plantations, Sime Darby has divisions that concentrate on insurance, heavy machinery, tire manufacture and refining and selling palm oil.

Sime Darby's initial foray into the U.S. market as a commodity-trading house in New York ended badly, Sulaiman said. This time, he said, then looking for appropriate U.S. goods for export to Asia.

"We are going to be around for a long time," said Sulaiman. "America is a big country, and we're going to be here."