.bodytext {float: left; } .floatimg-left-hort { float:left; margin-top:10px; margin-right: 10px; width:300px; clear:left;} .floatimg-left-caption-hort { float:left; margin-bottom:10px; width:300px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} .floatimg-left-vert { float:left; margin-top:10px; margin-right:15px; width:200px;} .floatimg-left-caption-vert { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; font-size: 12px; width:200px;} .floatimg-right-hort { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 300px;} .floatimg-right-caption-hort { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 300px; font-size: 12px; } .floatimg-right-vert { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px;} .floatimg-right-caption-vert { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px; font-size: 12px; } .floatimgright-sidebar { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px; border-top-style: double; border-top-color: black; border-bottom-style: double; border-bottom-color: black;} .floatimgright-sidebar p { line-height: 115%; text-indent: 10px; } .floatimgright-sidebar h4 { font-variant:small-caps; } .pullquote { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 150px; background: url(http://www.dmbusinessdaily.com/DAILY/editorial/extras/closequote.gif) no-repeat bottom right !important ; line-height: 150%; font-size: 125%; border-top: 1px solid; border-bottom: 1px solid;} .floatvidleft { float:left; margin-bottom:10px; width:325px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} .floatvidright { float:right; margin-bottom:10px; width:325px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} tr.d0 td { background-color: #ccccff; color: black; }
Globalization seems to be paying off quite well for a couple of companies with Central Iowa ties – one that bought into us and one that whisked a factory away.

Aviva plc, the biggest insurance company in the United Kingdom, announced last week that its 2007 sales rose 22 percent, mainly because the U.S. portion of its business quadrupled. That segment is doing so well because of the 2006 purchase of Des Moines-based AmerUs.

Aviva CEO Andrew Moss said the U.K. “remains important,” but that its contribution to overall sales will decline as Aviva invests in Asia and the United States.

Big floods in Britain? Those claims can easily be offset by all of that fresh money from over here.

Meanwhile, Whirlpool Corp.’s 2006 acquisition of Maytag Corp. seems to have been a smart move, too. The appliance maker announced last week that its fourth-quarter profit climbed 72 percent, even as the U.S. economy began to stall.

Whirlpool North America sales slipped slightly, dropping less than 1 percent to $3 billion, but sales in its European segment rose 12 percent to $1.1 billion, and Latin American sales surged about 30 percent to more than $1 billion. Asian sales grew 26 percent to $155 million.

Whirlpool CEO Jeff Fettig said almost half of the company’s revenues now come from countries other than the United States. Credit problems in California slowing the purchase of refrigerators? The developing nations have lots of eager new appliance buyers.

So there’s more to globalization than phone banks in India and clothing sweatshops in China.

Millions of people have lived and died without a matching washer-and-dryer set – but more and more can afford that luxury now.

And here in the world’s richest country, we’re so afraid of losing what we have that we’ll buy just about any kind of insurance you can dream up.

The world is a big market. Might as well take advantage of it.