22 ~ Sunday, December 20, 1987 - North Shore News A NORTH Vancouver company holds the local key to the door for Canadian exports hoping to crack the Japanese domestic market. Nika Marketing Corporation is the holder of exclusive Canadian rights to the AOMI Cargo Distribution Centre in Tokyo. Located on a man-inade island in Tokyo Bay, the U.S. $12 billion centre has been specifically design- ed to facilitate the importation and distribution of foreign goods. business. briefcase by Michael. Becker" The just-completed phase one of the project, includes bonded warehouses, product preparation areas, showrooms, offices and communications facilities, The centre représenis “a depar- ture from the traditional methods of distribution and merchandising in Japan, allowing independent Japanese wholesalers a. rational marketplace to source overseas products. Foreign exporters, Canadian in- cluded, have access to bonded warehouses and: domestic and foreign distribution facilities, pro- viding a reliable and convenient - base for Japanese and Pacific Rim operations. © Nika’s joint venture partner in Japan is Maruzen Showa Unyo Co., a sponsoring member and shareholder of the cargo distribu-” tion centre. “Traditionally in Japan there are four or more levels of distribu- tion which increase the costs of imports five to 10 times. The cen- tre eliminates three of these levels _making Canadian products com- petitive,’ said Nika Marketing Corp’s Michael Siddall. Nika facilitates product display and market research, and sets up distribution, marketing and invoic- ing, he said. The Canadian showroom at -the centre opens in February with over 10,000 square feet of space. Said Siddall: ‘The Japanese have a large domestic market and they’re the only ones with money these days.” Minoru Saito, director of ACMI Cargo Distribution Centre, was in Vancouver last month as part of a Pacific Northwest trip to meet with clients and company representat- ives. For more information call Sid- dall at 984-3568, kaka TWELVE PEOPLE picked up diplomas recently at a ceremony held at the Model Shipyard in North Vancouver for building a small flotilla of ships. The 12 completed the shop's Build A Wooden Ship Model From A Kit course which consists of eight evenings of instruction aimed at imparting the methods and skills needed to construct wooden model ships. : The course also gives insights in- to the tricks of the trade that make a miniature look like the real thing. | ; ‘The graduates are Jose Aragon, Mike Maryn, Dan Rurak, Trish Scales, Martha Johnston, Brian Cockburn, Tom Constable, Allan Evers, Neil Lerner, Randy Hamm, Ed Fenwick and Barbara Mercer. The shop is accepting registra- tions for the next classes which begin in January. keke THE TELEPHONE number in- cluded in Wednesday's column for Aqua Vista Vacations Interna- tional Inc. was in fact the FAX number. Gien Suitor or Ron Accili may be reached in person at 984- 6332. * You can own a tax shelter with 1987/88 tax deductions to $64,000, an immediate $7.000 tax credit, and § weeks of personal use in the Caribbean or British Columbia. And you get to choose from 30, 35, 38 or 41 foot C&C's. Vancouver V6H 3W7. NEWS photo Neil Lucente CLASSIFIED AD-TAKER Virginia McGinnis (right) presents Janis Johnstone, the latest weekly winner in the North Shore News Classified Pick-a-Present feature, with her $25 winnings. For more information on advertising items around your home at a special holiday rate, call 986-6222. Entrepreneur invents fie UNSANITARY PUBLIC restrooms are a fact of life, but one woman is doing something about it. San Francisco entrepreneur Lore Harp has introduced an innovative disposable product called Le Funelle that permits women to urinate while standing. Made of specially treated paper, it has a handle, scoop-like wide mouth, liquid-resistant interior Surface, and dissolves harmlessly in water, : Harp, who once founded a suc- cessful microcomputer company, fervently believes in the product after years of enduring countless dirty restrooms as she travelled the U.S. and world on business and pleasure. Still, she knew it was a risky venture to set up Aplex Corp. to develop the produci. ; “J gave it a lot of thought,” Harp said. “I knew there would be controversy and outright derision in marketing a product that re- quired women to change a lifetime of toiletsitting. But something has to be done. There is a real need for Le Funnelle.”’ She questioned women, including friends scores of and _ business associates, many of whom told her of their disgust over nox- ious restrooms and concerns about contracting diseases from toilet seats. * Formal market research in Boston,«Chicago, Dallas and Los Angeles supported her belief that Call us before it's too late, (604)669-3361, or send us your business card for a brochure. 1811 Maritime Mews, option for women would use a device that enabled them to avoid toilet seats, or even uncomfortable no-contact squatting. Market studies also showed that elderly women, handicapped women who have difficulty sitting and rising and outdoor women would benefit from Le Funelle. Next, the businesswoman con- tracted with a major Northeast paper manufacturer to research and develop the special paper, and then she began building a distribu- tion network. ' It takes someone with Harp’s perseverence and business savvy to market a product as radical as this. She has had to endure sniggers and a fot of bathroom humor as well as the naysayers and skeptics who said women would never change centuries of bathroom behavior. : Harp says wiitial response has been exciting. Test marketing on the West Coast in the spring of 1987 was successful, and sales have omen tripled every month since Le Funelle appeared in drugstores and other retail outlets in the United . States in 1987. . Since the product has become available, she has received testimonial letters from women in the United States, Japan, Canada, Europe and the Middle East. To those who maintain that women won’t change the way they go, she reminds that there wasa similar reaction to the introduction of tampons 50 years ago. “Clergymen and doctors cailed it a threat to womanly vistues, and women were told they couldn’t use them until they were married,’’ she said. “There are still Victorian virtues hanging over us, and taboos about - bodily functions may be the last to fall.” So confident is she’ that Le Funelle will catch on, she already is planning Aplex’s product exten- . sion: Save a little this season!... oa - . ¢ N LID. OFF ) these Champagnes and ¥ Sparkling Wines: ~- Krug Grande Cuvee on ma o ¢ ‘ Call WINE-LINE 734.WINE 4 , for . party service t 4 i # f