In Focus: Working holidays
I ventured over to the West Midlands last week to chair a round table on where the next round of profitable companies will come from. Sat amongst the bankers, lawyers and accountants were three business owners and they all had a similar tale to tell; one of building their companies by diversifying, offering highly specialised, niche products and - most importantly of all - exporting.
Seems a lot of companies in emerging markets aren’t worried about paying for British skills and expertise and are still impressed by the “Made in Britain” tag.
Morgan Tucker, the Newark-based consulting engineer, is a case in point. Matthew Tucker, the managing director of the company, said to me: “In the last 12 months we’ve had an increasing number of enquiries from international companies, including Russia, China and Romania. They say that what they like is the professionalism of the British.
“I have to say that there is an enormous amount of support available from the government with regards to selling British goods abroad. We deal a lot in the Romanian market, and at the moment they’re 30 years behind us, because they don’t have the confidence in their own markets. It’s up to us to get on board now and take advantage of that before they catch up.”
This comes on the back of a report from PwC that says one in four (25 per cent) of UK chief executive officers surveyed identified new geographic markets as the main opportunity to grow their business over the next 12 months. The figure rose from 14 per cent the previous year.
Gurdeep Singh Bath of Perfection Foods weighed in with: “We found that the UK market was saturated, but there are other markets and we realised that we were offering a niche product so we have been successful. Also, because most business is done in English, we’re looked more favourably upon. Also, we put the British flag on our products. We sell a lot to Malta and because our cakes have the Union Jack on them they know they’re high quality. We grew very rapidly, and we didn’t have a lot of time for branding, but because of the British flag consumers trusted our products.”
So, buying British is popular. Who knew? Well, these two, clearly. The role of UKTI – which actually had its budget increased this year, is surely now more important than ever. This government appears to have identified that whilst no-one is buying anything at home, abroad they’re falling over themselves to get their hands on some prime British stock. Start booking your (working) holidays now…
Comments? Sam Metcalf, Insider
Recent Posts
Services
Dealmakers Services Directory
Directory Find an advisor to help you buy, sell or invest
Property Services Directory
Find an advisor across property services
Commercial Property Finder
Full commercial property listings in the Midlands
Guides
Midlands City View
The news, features and analysis that matter for your city
International Trade
Our guide provides expert analysis on a range of trade destinations
42 under 42 Members
The latest class of the Midlands brightest young business people
- Contact us
- Midlands
- North West
- South West
- Wales
- Yorkshire
- Other regions
- 0121 232 0980
- 0161 907 9711
- 0117 906 5900
- 02920 434500
- 0113 220 4410
- 0161 907 9718
- Insider regions
- Central & East
- Ireland
- Midlands
- North East
- North West
- South East
- South West
- Wales
- Yorkshire