[USMA:26443] Colo. companies unfazed by demands of metric system.htm

[Nat Hager III]

Title: Message

Simply a repeat of the Colorodo story on MSNBC.   Nat

Colo. companies unfazed by demands of metric system By Paula Moore The Denver Business Journal Jul. 21 — Colorado companies doing business with the European Union don't have to use the metric system for their European products until 2010, but many are already going metric to get a leg up on the deadline.  Latest local business news  The Denver Business Journal home page  Book of Lists: Top local leads  Search The Denver Business Journal archives  Subscribe Now

As of Jan. 1, 2010, the EU requires the labeling on all product packaging to use grams rather than ounces, liters rather than pints, centimeters rather than inches. The deadline originally was 2000, but the EU extended it to give U.S. companies wedded to this country's inch-pound measurement system, and resistant to a metric system they didn't know or understand, more time make the switch.         But the metric system has the weight of history behind it. It dates back to 16th-century Europe when a French vicar created the decimal system, a computation system based on the number 10. This country has inched toward it since 1790, when Thomas Jefferson proposed a decimal-based system here.         Americans finally appeared to embrace metrication in the mid-1970s with the passage of the Metric Conversion Act of 1975, but the law fizzled for lack of interest by consumers and businesses.         Many Colorado companies have begun using the metric system to do business in metric countries, but they also still use inch-pound measures when they can.         Golden-based Adolph Coors Co. sells its beer in Europe in metric measurements because that's the European way, according to spokeswoman Melissa Gelfand. In the United Kingdom -- where Coors owns the Carling, Caffreys and Worthington labels -- the brewer still sells its products in pints and half-pints because the U.K. is still converting from its traditional imperial measures to the metric system.         ProLogis Trust, an Aurora-based developer and operator of distribution centers in Europe and other foreign countries, measures its European properties in square meters and its U.S. facilities in square feet, according to spokeswoman Shannon Rowe.         Many U.S. companies fear metrication will cost more because they will have to do dual labeling -- inch-pound measures for the American market and metric measures for foreign markets. While sometimes the duplication that makes going metric more expensive is unavoidable, sometimes it's not.         If, for example, an American company already is paying to translate the wording on a cereal box from English to French or German to export it to Europe, converting the ounces of carbohydrates, fat, etc., included in the box's labeling to grams won't cost any more.         Product labeling is information about what's inside a box, bottle or some other form of packaging such as weight and a breakdown of content ingredients by quantity. A can of Diet Coke, for example, weighs 12 fluid ounces (355 milliliters) and has 2 percent sodium (40 milligrams), 0 calories, 0 percent fat and 0 percent carbohydrates.         "You have to translate the labels, so the added cost is already there," said Julie Rubin, international trade specialist for Europe at the Mayor's Office of Economic Development and International Trade in Denver. Rubin lived in Europe for 12 years.         MOED/IT doesn't get many inquiries about using the metric system, according to Rubin, because its clients are largely service companies that don't need to change measurements to do business abroad.         Going metric can even save money. When Canada converted to the metric system several years ago, roofers embraced it because they could install 10 percent more meter-long shingles than foot-long ones with the same number of staples, according to Jim Reis, president of Denver's World Trade Center.         "They loved it," Reis recalled.         Seventy percent of major U.S. corporations already employ the metric system in some business aspect, and 30 percent of small businesses do, according to the U.S. Metric Association. The Northridge, Calif.-based association promotes conversion to the metric system.         Even though the U.S. government's attempt at a wholesale U.S. metric conversion in the '70s failed, the government hasn't given up on metrication. It's just taking a slower, more structured approach -- nudging consumers and businesses toward the metric system, rather than pushing them.         The U.S. Treasury Department's Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms started requiring wine and distilled spirits to be in metric-size bottles in 1979 and 1980, respectively. Food and beverage manufacturers have had to use both U.S. standard inch-pound measures and the metric system for packaging since the Fair Packaging and Labeling Act began requiring dual-unit labeling in 1994. Even the National Weather Service went metric in 1996, reporting surface temperatures in degrees Celsius.         Most recently, U.S. stock exchanges finalized the shift to decimal trading in September 2001, making them like the rest of the world's major exchanges. American stocks now are quoted in dollars and cents rather than fractions.         The U.S. Department of Commerce is working to amend the Fair Packaging Labeling Act to allow metric-only labeling so U.S. companies can be ready for the EU's 2010 deadline for metric-only labeling. The law currently requires both inch-pound and metric measures on all consumer products.         "Our proposal gets the government out of making the decisions and leaves it to the marketplace, where consumers and manufacturers say they want metric only," said Ken Butcher, group leader of the Laws and Metric Group of the Commerce Department's National Institute of Standards and Technology.         Consumer products giant Procter & Gamble Co. of Cincinnati, maker of everything from Secret antiperspirant to Iams pet food, is one company that wants to get on the metric-only bandwagon early, so it will have a head start on redesigning its packaging before the EU deadline.         "When we advise companies on labeling for export, we tell them they're at a disadvantage if they don't go into metric measures," said Danielle Dooley, international trade specialist at the U.S. Export Assistance Center in downtown Denver's World Trade Center. "The overseas buyer is often reluctant to accept products not in metric."         Also part of the Commerce Department, the export center aims to help small and medium-size businesses with export issues.         While much of Asia and other parts of the world accept both imperial/inch-pound and metric measures, Europe traditionally has used the metric system, and the EU retains that preference. "The metric system was in Europe long before the EU," said Reis.         Most of the rest of the world also prefers the metric system, edging U.S. companies that cling to the inch-pound system out of the global economy. Japan now is asking for metric-only measures from countries that export to that country, including the United States, according to Butcher.         "Countries all over the world are saying please change this so we can have metric only. ... To me, it's one of the most important things we can do," Butcher said.         "The U.S. will have to go metric at some point," said Reis. 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