Exporting for Growth

SPECIAL REPORT: EXPORTING FOR GROWTH BRIDGING THE GULF The power of preparation GLOBAL GAME-CHANGER Driving a tech revolution HIGH SEAS SUCCESS Tees firm rules the waves

THE WORLD IS ON YOUR DOORSTEP CONNECTING YOUR BUSINESS, LOCALLY AND GLOBALLY

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CONTENTS

CONTACTS

04 NEWS

ROOM501 LTD Christopher March Managing Director e: chris@room501.co.uk Bryan Hoare Director e: bryan@room501.co.uk

Export successes and overseas breakthroughs for North East firms

14 BUILDING BRIDGES

EDITORIAL Peter Jackson e: p.jackson77@btinternet.com

UKTI’s David Coppock on the organisation’s export boosting role

20 WORLD FIRST Game-changing tech which is transforming healthcare globally

24 HIGH SEAS SUCCESS The Tees-made thrusters threatening to dominate the world’s oceans

30 EUROPEAN MASTERS How recession opened up an entire continent to one band of creatives

34 ALL SMILES Making a dent in overseas territories with a products champion on Teesside

40 HELPING HAND The vital part support networks play in buliding foreign markets

44 TRADING TIES The government measures aimed at getting more UK SMEs exporting

HIGH SEA SUCCESS

24 EXPORTING FOR GROWTH

SPECIAL REPORT:

EXPORTING FOR GROWTH

WELCOME Welcome to this edition of BQ2 in which we spotlight exporting.

Increasing overseas trade is a central plank of this government’s economic policy, heralded in the early months of the Coalition by high profile visits by David Cameron and leading Cabinet members to China and India. Already one of the UK’s few regions with a positive balance of trade, the North East has risen to the exporting challenge to such an extent that, for the first time, its sales to countries outside the EU exceed those to fellow EU nations.

This isn’t surprising since the region has always been outward facing with ancient links to the Baltic and Northern Europe and later, during and after the industrial revolution, sending its engineering and manufacturing genius, as well as its raw materials, around the world. Coal and ships may have been replaced by cars and software but the region is still showing the rest of the country the way when it comes to conquering world markets. In these pages we celebrate some of those successes and highlight the support available to those firms which also want to win business in overseas markets. The rewards for success are considerable. Sales overseas not only bring direct revenue rewards, they also strengthen the businesses doing the exporting.

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BQ Magazine is published quarterly by room501 Ltd.

SPECIAL REPORT | SPRING 14

NEWS

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Flurry of overseas deals for North East firms, Roman empire marches on with new funding, Sevcon eyes Chinese growth, Shearer signs potentially lucrative Gulf deal and OGN delivers major jobs boost >> Turkey triumph A Tyneside firm has secured its first overseas order with a business in Turkey as part of its new export strategy.

Security Risk Management (SRM) of Gosforth, Newcastle, provides a range of risk assurance, security and forensic investigation services and specialises in information security.

The company provides a security service encompassing people, processes, technology and risk management and its clients include large corporate institutions, small independent businesses and public sector organisations.

Within the Payment Card Industry, SRM is a Qualified Security Auditor and one of only 21 companies worldwide accredited to carry out PCI related forensic investigations.

Keen to broaden its horizons SRM, signed up to UK Trade and Investment’s (UKTI) Passport to Export programme and has already won its first overseas contract in Turkey. Preparations are now underway to exhibit at a UKTI Cyber & Information Security Showcase trade fair in Austria following a Cyber Security briefing event given by SRM managing director Tom Fairfax and held at the British Embassy in Vienna.

Brian Fenwick, operations director at SRM, said: “With the aid of Passport and our International Trade Adviser we’ve been able to identify several markets that we’re keen to target and have developed an export strategy that we’re now implementing.

“We’ve already secured our first overseas order from a client in Turkey and we’ve commissioned an overseas market introduction service report to help us identify potential customers in Europe, the Middle East and Africa who are attending the forthcoming event in Austria.”

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Lissa Balmer, UKTI’s international trade adviser who has been working with the company, said: “SRM has only been using Passport for six months but is already reaping the rewards that exporting can bring and has embraced the support and connections available from our overseas teams.

“This is a forward thinking, progressive company that is not afraid to discuss areas of concern, to seek advice and take the advice and support available to them. I hope the new contract in Turkey is the first of many successes for the company.

“UKTI is committed to helping companies succeed in the global race and our Exporting is GREAT campaign aims to encourage them to contact us to find out more about how we can help. I hope SRM’s success will help inspire others to follow in their footsteps.”

>> Software success A Sunderland company is breaking into a lucrative Canadian market with the launch of a pilot product aimed at controlling energy use in the process industry.

5G Technologies, a technology software product development company with offices in India, Canada and Sunderland has developed eC4 to identify and control high energy use equipment in order to reduce energy costs by up to 15%.

The product, which was developed in Sunderland and partially funded by Northstar Ventures’ North East Proof of Concept Fund, allows companies to control their energy use by identifying leakage and wastage. eC4 has allowed 5G Technologies to break into new markets in Canada, where it has signed a deal with one of the world’s largest gold mining companies, which cannot be named for commercial reasons.

Managing director Ananth Seshan said: “Despite having offices in Chennai and Toronto, we wanted a base in Europe to develop an in-depth research strategy while

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forging new links with leading software experts. We heard of the great relationship Sunderland has with software companies in the region and the connection it has with highly skilled graduates from surrounding universities.

“It’s a really exciting time for 5G Technologies as we take our project, which has taken three and a half years to develop, to new markets and establish the company as a leader in energy consumption control. We’re really optimistic about the future and have set our sights on a number of different opportunities, including a project to wire municipalities in Canada.”

The company, which has a 65-strong workforce spread across its three offices, aims to recruit two new research and development engineers. It also works alongside Ph.D students at Durham University to develop artificial intelligence in the next generation of Enterprise Gateway scheduled to be released in 2015.

Councillor Paul Watson, leader of Sunderland City Council said: “It’s fantastic to see a Sunderland based company develop such a functional and unique product and I’m thrilled it has received the backing of Canadian markets.”

David Gray, Roman’s New Export Sales Executive

>> Export man steps in David Gray has joined shower designer and manufacturer, Roman, as a new member of the County Durham company’s export team.

Export sales executive Gray speaks fluent

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NEWS

French, Spanish and Italian and also intermediate level Norwegian.

Previously he was a customer service administrator in the manufacturing sector, where he organised logistics and dealt with export documentation for international customers.

He said: “I’m very excited to be joining Roman as their export sales executive, and to be working with such a well-established UK brand. Export is a major focus of the company and significant growth opportunities in various international markets are continually being identified.

I am delighted to be joining Roman at such an exciting time and very much look forward to being part of their success.”

>> Airport accolade Newcastle International Airport has been voted the third best airport in the UK by readers of Wanderlust Magazine.

At the end of 2013 Wanderlust asked its readers to vote on a number of categories, including destinations, airlines, travel gadgets – and airports. The results show that Newcastle Airport has moved up one in the rankings to enter the top three.

Dave Laws, chief executive of Newcastle International Airport, said: “The results of the latest Wanderlust survey are a great endorsement of the work we’ve been doing over the past year.

“This is very much in line with us securing the votes of Which? readers for best large airport in the UK last year, and is welcome recognition for our dedicated staff and business partners who work hard to deliver a high quality customer experience.”

>> Carr’s meets expectations Food and engineering group Carr’s Milling reports that it continues to trade in line with board expectations.

In a trading statement relating to the 19 weeks to 11 January, the Carlisle-based group issued the statement to coincide with its AGM. In the agriculture divison, feed blocks have continued to perform well with increased demand in the US as a result of the severe weather conditions offset by a softening in >>

EXPORTING FOR GROWTH

>> LEGO trader builds on new opportunities A business which licenses and distributes LEGO and Star Wars merchandise globally from its North East base is expanding into premises more than three times larger than its previous home.

ClicTime is the exclusive global licensee for LEGO watches and clocks, and also has a dual LEGO license with Warner Bros and Lucas Film, which allows the manufacture and distribution of LEGO Star Wars and LEGO DC Superhero clocks and watches worldwide.

The business is moving into 3,369sq ft premises in Blaydon, South Tyneside – more than treble the floor space of its previous base in Ponteland – to give its 11-strong design team three storeys of open-plan office and design space, with a stockroom and marketing department.

ClicTime, which distributes its LEGO merchandise throughout the UK, as well as in 8,000 retail outlets across North America and in more than 20 countries on four continents, has also taken on two staff at its new North East office.

ClicTime’s owner and managing director Jim Richardson also owns a number of other brands which are designed and managed from the premises, including Skewjack.

The new Blaydon site is the UK headquarters of ClicTime, a global company which also has offices in New Jersey in the US and Hong Kong. It was set up in the North East in 1999 by Jim Richardson, and has been a LEGO licensee for more than 12 years.

Group finance manager Robert Palmer said: “We have always held a strong relationship with LEGO and in recent years we have seen a rapid increase in turnover globally.

“The new space in Blaydon is perfect for our business and we envisage being here for many years. We are excited for our new product launches for 2014 and expect the business to continue to grow into the future.”

ClicTime has been supported in its office move by Newcastle law firm Sintons. ClicTime donated hundreds of its watches and clocks to Sintons’ charity of the year for 2013, Down’s Syndrome North East, as well as for the law firm to give to children in a local hospital.

Donna Hunwick, employment solicitor at Sintons, said: “While a relatively small and locally-based operation, ClicTime works with huge brands on a global scale, establishing a strong reputation in the process. From their very discreet new premises, they design iconic products which are sold and loved around the world.”

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SPECIAL REPORT | SPRING 14

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demand in the UK, following prolonged mild weather. Carr’s is investigating the possibility of expanding in the New Zealand and South American markets.

AminoMax a protein for dairy cattle, has had a positive start to the year and in the UK the launch of the new plant at Lancaster has led to a significant expansion in the dairy farm customer base. In the US an expanded AminoMax plant is operational and meeting increasing customer demand.

The refurbishment and expansion of the Carlisle Country Store has continued to do well and a development programme for the Malton, Bakewell and Skipton stores remains on track. Construction of a new Country Store at Annan has begun and is expected to complete in summer 2014.

The Food division is trading ahead of last year’s performance and in line with expectations.

A new mill at Kirkcaldy is now fully operational and Carr’s is beginning to see the financial benefits.

The quality of the 2013 UK wheat harvest was significantly better than 2012’s poor harvest.

Carrs reports total sales volumes across its three mills are ahead of last year and the group says it is optimistic about future opportunities.

Net debt as at 30 November was £28.2m compared to £22.1m as at 31 August. This was the result of seasonal working capital increases in the agriculture division and the on-going investment programme throughout the group.

Chief executive Tim Davies said: “We are pleased with the start we have made to the financial year. Against a challenging backdrop of a mild start to the winter in the UK, a vastly improved wheat harvest, and the continuing delays in the procurement of orders from the UK nuclear industry, trading remains in line with the board’s expectations.

“We are making good progress across each of our divisions, helped by our continued product innovation and sustained investment in our people and assets, so that the business is well placed to ensure a long term competitive advantage. We will continue to explore opportunities to grow the business both domestically and overseas.”

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>> Roman marches on with new funding package County Durham-based manufacturer Roman has secured a £1.3m package from HSBC Commercial Bank to support development, launch new product ranges and continue its international expansion.

The shower enclosure and bath screen manufacturer launched its exclusive Decem range at the end of last year, targeting high-end retail markets in the UK and overseas, and is set to introduce its Lumin8 range of enclosures later this year.

Roman, which employs about 160 people, manufactures its range of shower enclosures and accessories at its Newton Aycliffe headquarters and exports its goods globally.

Export markets include France, Spain, Holland, Poland, Malta, Canada and the UAE, and the company has identified significant growth opportunities in Singapore, USA and the Middle East.

Just under 10% of its annual turnover of about £11.5m is accounted for by overseas sales and the business believes it can grow that to 20% within three to five years.

Roman has set up a subsidiary company in Malaysia, Roman Asia, which is positioned to increase sales within the Asian market, primarily targeting the growing South East Asia luxury hotel market.

Roman has switched its full business banking to HSBC’s Tyne Tees Commercial team in a deal led by senior international commercial manager Stuart Henry. HSBC has also put in place a forward exchange contracts facility, which helps protect the company against adverse movements in exchange rates.

David Osborne, Roman managing director, said: “Roman is growing internationally and we also have a subsidiary in Malaysia, which encouraged our move to HSBC.” He added: “We aim to establish a number of partners in key markets and to be able to mature in those markets with all our new products, such as our Decem and Lumin8 ranges.

“Our Decem range is designed for the international hotel market, as the range incorporates all the key features and benefits required, such as increased height of shower enclosures, tailored design specifications and the fact that it has been developed and manufactured in Britain.

“Roman is a well-established UK Brand, and is home to the UK’s largest shower manufacturing plant. Being a British manufacturer is becoming increasingly important in international markets as it is a key differential and a trusted sign of the highest quality of products.”

Roman was established in 1985 by David Osborne’s father, Gerry, who is now chairman.

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COMPANY PROFILE

Six North East SMEs seize opportunity to increase exports Six Northeast SMEs are joining the NEPIC led UKTI market visit to India.

The market visit this March seeks to build on the successful 2013 trip, where four SMEs returned with several significant projects to boost their exports. The aim of the visit is to help the delegates increase international trade by providing opportunities for them to identify and secure new business in Mumbai, Pune and Bangalore - where bilateral trade is growing at 30-40% each year.

India’s large process sector and supply chain makes it highly desirable to Northeast companies.

The likelihood for success is made more accessible for the delegates because of strong links NEPIC has to a large number of Indian companies - including formal MOUs with four Indian organisations.

NEPIC has a long established commitment to supporting the region’s SMEs. This is realised through projects like the Business Acceleration for SMEs (BASME) programme, which seeks to help local SMEs to develop their sales to the process sector. The marrying of SME support to achieving sustainable growth and encouraging businesses to increase their international trade activities is an important aspect of NEPIC ethos, and is the driver behind the BASME programme.

Felix O’Hare, BASME Programme Leader, NEPIC spoke of the benefits of NEPICs special relationship with India: “The scope for SMEs to increase their exports is considerable. India is one of the UK’s key markets; therefore access to the right support is essential in

helping SMEs achieve sustainable trade in the subcontinent. The cluster-to-cluster relations between NEPIC and India provide a powerful advantage for delegates because they offer routes to meet with influential senior executives, which may not have been possible otherwise.”

To find out more about the programme contact Felix O’Hare, BASME Programme Leader, NEPIC felix.ohare@nepic.co.uk

Finance North East For Business Growth Plus Fund

Fund is catalyst for new contracts An innovative new fund launched in 2013 by Tees Valley Unlimited and managed by FW Capital aims to help businesses in the Tees Valley unlock additional contracts valued at £700 million over the next ten years.

FW Capital has backed ambitious businesses across the North East to help them achieve their

growth plans from the North East Growth Plus Fund since 2010. Now the £10 million Tees Valley Catalyst Fund can help businesses of all sizes secure new contracts by providing short-term finance to fund performance and warranty bonds.

The North East is home to many businesses providing new technologies and services to the

To find out how FW Capital can help your business call our investment team on 01642 343 494 www.fwcapital.co.uk/northeast

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global energy industry, with a particular focus on the oil and gas and renewables sectors in the Tees Valley.

FW Capital is keen to ensure that more Teesbased businesses will be able to seize new opportunities to expand in both their domestic and overseas markets.

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>> Sevcon eyes Far East sales Low carbon vehicle firm Sevcon has launched a joint venture to exploit the Chinese market - as it reports a strong surge in revenues and profits.

The Gateshead based company, which is listed on Nasdaq, reported first quarter revenues up 36% to £5.5m from £4m. The sales surge for the three months up to 31 December, reflected improving conditions in its markets and produced pre-tax profits of £435,000 compared with a loss of £730,000 in the corresponding period.

President and chief executive Matt Boyle said: “Sevcon’s revenue growth in the first quarter was driven by increased product shipments in the majority of our markets, and in all three of the geographic regions we serve.

“Our sales growth in North America was driven by substantially stronger demand, yearover-year, in our traditional off-road markets, primarily for fork-lift truck and aerial work platform applications.

“Demand also was significantly higher in Japan and China, primarily for off-road applications as well. Although the European economy still faces challenges, this was our second consecutive quarter of growth in that region, largely driven by increased product demand for 4-wheel EV applications in the on-road market.”

With its results, Sevcon unveiled the launch of a joint venture in China with a subsidiary of a Chinese Tier 1 automotive supplier, Risenbo Technology, based in Hubei Province. The agreement has received the required approval of the Chinese government. Operating as Sevcon New Energy Technology Company, the new joint venture company will market and sell existing and future Sevcon products for on-road electric and hybrid vehicle applications, principally to Tier 1 automotive suppliers in China. Boyle said: “Partnering with Risenbo is a unique strategic opportunity for Sevcon to gain greater access to the world’s largest electric and hybrid vehicle market. This joint venture will open the door for Sevcon to help China’s Tier 1 automotive suppliers meet the country’s fast-growing demand for zeroemission scooters, motorcycles, automobiles and commercial vehicles, as well as hybrid electric vehicles.”

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Louise Hardy and Charlotte Angus

>> Italian ambitions An entrepreneur from HoughtonLe-Spring has set her sights on Italy to share and learn new skills with an experienced overseas business.

Charlotte Angus will spend two months in Naples with Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs, a cross border exchange programme. She will use the time to learn about new markets as well as giving a fresh perspective to the company she will be working for.

The North East Business and Innovation Centre (BIC) is a UK contact point for those wishing to benefit from an energetic and motivated entrepreneur from participating European countries. After Angus visited the BIC to start her own business she decided the programme was for her.

She said: “After taking voluntary redundancy I came to the BIC in May and

by August I had started my own business, Mulberry Dragonfly, which offers bespoke solutions to organisations to engage their teams and unlock performance potential to implement small and large business change.

“It has always been an aspiration of mine to work abroard because I love to travel and learn about other cultures and it was whilst receiving the help at the BIC that I found out about the Erasmus programme and this seems like a really good opportunity, to not only share expertise with the company, but also gain knowledge to benefit my business.

“The BIC have been so helpful right from the start and I am looking forward to the

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experience.” Louise Hardy, business mentor at the BIC, said: “The Erasmus programme truly is a win-win collaboration, the host company benefits from fresh ideas from a motivated individual and the entrepreneur may have specialised skills or knowledge in an area to complement the business.

As well as acquiring knowledge about foreign markets there is potential to expand business and network within another country. Don’t let the title put you off Young Entrepreneur simply means any business less than three years old, therefore I would urge anyone interested in learning more to please get in touch.”

>> OpSec invests in future OpSec Security Group has invested £250,000 in new equipment to increase capacity and support growth.

The Sunderland-based anti-counterfeiting technology specialist has also made a major investment in sales and marketing and has completed two acquisitions in the last 18 months which the investment will support.

The new equipment will be used in the manufacture of holographic products which are used worldwide to prevent counterfeiting.

OpSec customers include more than 40 governments and 100 firms and organisations.

The Sunderland plant, at Phoenix Road, Washington, is the European headquarters and manufacturing facility of the group.

Holographic protection is used in the production of passports, concert and sports tickets, banknotes, driving licences and national ID cards. The wafer-thin images help to protect the integrity of the products and deter fraudsters and counterfeiters.

The equipment was bought with support from Sunderland City Council, which offered a capital equipment grant to OpSec. The council’s business investment team has worked with OpSec since it was set up in 1983.

The group now employs 100 people at its Sunderland plant, with 400 employed globally.

Councillor Paul Watson, Leader of Sunderland City Council, said: “OpSec‘s exporting figures are excellent, and we’re delighted that with this equipment the group can now support future growth at its plant in Sunderland.”

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>> Doggy deal has tails wagging

George Heydon (left) and Andrew Geere (right), the dogs are Axl, Bruce and Fudge

>> New link to Euro epicentre bmi regional is preparing for the take off of its new jet service to Brussels, which starts on 3 March.

Cathal O’Connell, CEO at bmi regional, said: “This is our first route from Newcastle International and we’re delighted to provide the only direct flight for travellers from the North East of England to the Belgian capital.

“Brussels has so much to offer for leisure travellers such as a vibrant cultural offering

EXPORTING FOR GROWTH

A Durham-based SME has signed up to be exclusive distributor of American dogwear firm Ruffwear across 21 countries in Europe, in a deal it believes to be worth £5m.

The Accapi Group is creating 10 jobs as it expands its role as the exclusive distributor of Ruffwear to the UK, France and Lithuania, a position it has held since 2010.

In this time Accapi has increased Ruffwear’s UK wholesale turnover from £20,000 in 2010 to its current figure of £500,000.

To handle the expansion, Accapi has recruited new staff including a native German as head of international customer service, Frauke Gamblin. The firm based at Tanfield Lea Business Centre in Stanley, has already employed 10 new people at the head office and in other countries, with a further 10 sales people to be appointed in early 2014.

Used by outdoor enthusiasts wanting to take their dogs on activities like trekking, trail running, sailing or skiing, Ruffwear products include a range of technical harnesses, jackets, collars, leads, boots and backpacks.

The products are also used by the police for sniffer dogs and those involved in search and rescue. Accapi was launched in 2009 by entrepreneur George Heydon, founder of the training company The Talent Group.

Chief executive and co-owner Andrew Geere joined The Accapi Group as a partner in March 2010, having previously headed up international commercial teams at Berghaus, Barbour and French outdoor apparel brand Aigle International. Heydon said: “Ruffwear is an outdoor brand every bit as technical and innovative as leading adventure clothing brands but for dogs, with a mission to inspire outdoor adventures for dogs and their human companions.”

Andrew Geere said: “We are delighted to extend our partnership with Ruffwear into Europe following three and a half years of successful growth in the UK, France and Lithuania. The strategy to have one principal distribution partner in Europe will enable supply chain improvements and cost reduction to benefit our retailers. Ruffwear director of sales, Dove Gibson, said: “We’re excited to take the successful partnership between Ruffwear and Accapi to a new level. Accapi has excelled with Ruffwear Performance Dog Gear throughout the UK and we’re looking forward to partnering with them in Europe. They’ve assembled a terrific team that is committed to delivering great service to Ruffwear Retailers. We will be enthusiastically working together to expand Ruffwear product availability in key European markets.”

and beautiful surroundings such as the Grand Place – a UNESCO World Heritage Site – and traditional Flemish houses. As well as Brussels itself, travellers can make use of the excellent Belgian rail services running from Brussels Airport to reach Bruges, Ghent and Antwerp with ease.” Dave Laws, chief executive of Newcastle International Airport, said: “The new route is already proving popular with both leisure and business passengers. Belgium is an interesting country to visit with much to

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see and do. There is far more to Belgium than just delicious chocolate and great beers.”

Sarah Stewart, chief executive of destination management and marketing agency NewcastleGateshead Initiative, said; “The growing number of airlines choosing Newcastle International Airport signals a real confidence both in the airport and the destination. bmi regional’s new Brussels flight is positive news for the tourism sector and the business community.” >>

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“The news of new contracts and successful acquisitions at OpSec gives grounds for optimism. It strengthens the city’s positive manufacturing sector performance.”

Michael Currie, European financial director at OpSec Security, said: “This has been a good year for OpSec at Sunderland, with new contracts won and in the pipeline. The new equipment is a major step forward for the company, as it will improve the speed of our supply times, and boost productivity of our excellent employees. Sunderland City Council has been a great support to the company, advising and assisting us practically and strategically for many years, which we really appreciate.”

Point business park. These offices house 450 people of whom the majority perform back office functions for Amec such as expenses, payroll, car hire, car fleet, and includes the finance team and the HR team. There are

also about 160 engineers operating out of Darlington, in one of Amec’s engineering centres of excellence. The engineering team is more than 165 strong and it is expected to reach more than 200 next year.

>> Gulf contract renewed Amec, the engineering and project management giant, has won a renewed contract with the Kuwait Oil Company (KOC) for project management consultancy services for a portfolio of major upstream projects.

The five-year ‘call-off’ contract is worth about £255m. It was won in a competitive tender and follows Amec’s successful delivery of two previous five-year contracts held since 2004.

Under the new contract, Amec will provide the same services as the previous contracts, ranging from front end engineering design, FEED, project management consultancy services, engineering, construction management and training of Kuwaiti engineers. The work will be managed and delivered by a 250 strong team of Amec engineers in Kuwait, with FEED execution from Amec’s London design office.

“I am delighted that KOC has recognised our excellent performance over the last 10 years with the award of this significant contract,” said Alan Armstrong, Amec’s operations director in Kuwait. “We are delivering value for our customer and helping them achieve their 2030 vision of maximising the strategic value from the country’s oil and gas reserves.

“The contract is a significant continuation of Amec’s work in the Middle East and is further evidence of our success in this strategically important region.”

In 2012 Amec shifted operations from Yarm Road Industrial Estate where it was coming to the end of its lease to Darlington’s Lingfield

SPECIAL REPORT | SPRING 14

Alan Shearer signed the deal with business man Tariq Bacha

>> Shearer signs international deal Fitness machine distributor Speedflex Europe is to open its first Speedflex Centre in Dubai as part of its plans to open in 50 to 100 locations.

The new centre will be located in the Ocean View Hotel, Jumeirah Beach in Dubai in partnership with JA Resorts. Ambassador of Speedflex Europe Alan Shearer signed the deal with business man Tariq Bacha.

Shearer said: “Dubai has emerged as a leading international hub and we feel Speedflex is a perfect fit for the market place and for individuals and companies looking for a high intensity workout with rapid results, that won’t impact too heavily into their schedule or leave them with muscle ache.” Launched in 2012 by Sage founder Graham Wylie, NUFC legend Alan Shearer and former Newcastle United physiotherapist Paul Ferris, the company has also signed deals in Dallas, London, Durham, Richmond, Leatherhead and Leeds. Invented by a team at a hospital in North Carolina, USA, the Speedflex machines return force put in by the person exercising, allowing people of any age, fitness or ability to work out safely. Other celebrity ambassadors who are now working with Speedflex include Sky Sports and television presenter Ben Shephard, former NUFC player Rob Lee and Paralympian Stephen Miller. Graham Wylie, who bought the European rights for Speedflex said: “Our current target is to open 50 Speedflex centres in the UK and we are currently working on further expansion plans across Europe and beyond. The machines sell themselves, as users can burn more calories than they thought possible in a 45 minute session without any joint or muscle soreness. That, with the personal trainer involvement and the wearing of a heart rate monitor, means it is a very safe option whatever age and fitness condition you are in. It’s unique, there simply is nothing like this out in the marketplace.” The deal was overseen by Karen Simms and Luke Phelan of Newcastle law firm Sintons, who have worked with Speedflex since its incorporation. Karen Simms, head of corporate at Sintons said: “Speedflex is a dynamic business with a unique and innovative fitness concept. We are delighted to have worked on this exciting step in growth strategy”.

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Port of Tyne – Gateway to world-wide markets The last 12 months have seen the Port of Tyne strengthen its logistics operations with £6 million invested in a second container gantry crane and a further £1.5 million dedicated to streamlining the Port’s IT systems.

John Tye, Commercial Director, Logistics, said: “We have been successful in attracting new business to the Port during 2013 which has seen our logistics operations thrive with new contracts from Barbour and Jacques Vert as well as extending our existing business with Argos by importing goods from Turkey for the first time.”

Other leading manufacturing companies behind famous brand names such as Tetley Tea, Nissan and JML also depend on the Port of Tyne for their logistics requirements.

“Some of the UK’s leading manufacturers and retail brands have found the Port of Tyne can provide

reliable, cost efficient solutions to their supply chain needs,” says John.

Nissan Motor Manufacturing UK extended their relationship with the Port of Tyne during 2013 and now leases 32,000 sq metres of warehousing space.

Paul Maddison, General Manager for Renault-Nissan Alliance Logistics in Europe, said: “Our relationship with the Port of Tyne is an important part of our supply chain and helps to quickly and efficiently deliver our products to market.”

The Port’s new gantry crane has the capacity to handle 98% of the world’s short-sea container vessels and container imports and exports through the regular feeder services operated by Unifeeder and BG Freight provide connectivity to Felixstowe, Grangemouth, Rotterdam and world-wide markets.

For John Tye the Port’s ability to gain top brand names and well-known retailers all comes down to

understanding customer expectations.

“Our customers require robust supply chains from factory to store. Our “one stop shop” logistics operation provides flexibility to be able to meet the changing needs of demanding manufacturers and retailers.

“The Port’s dedicated and professional team works closely with our customers to deliver an integrated package of logistics that perfectly fits their requirements.”

Discover more about the Port of Tyne by visiting www.portoftyne.co.uk

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NEWS

SPRING 14

>> Airport revamp backed North East Chamber of Commerce, (NECC) is backing plans to revamp Durham Tees Valley Airport. NECC members in the south of the region who were briefed on the DTVA Masterplan, supported proposals to maintain international air links from the airport and see services to Schiphol and Aberdeen as vital for the local economy. NECC head of member relations Rachel Anderson said: “The large number of companies in the area requiring international air linkages makes a compelling case for maintaining and developing passenger services. Our members recognise that the airport has endured a tough few years, but are in favour of new investment to ensure it is an attractive option to business travellers in the future. Proposals to use surrounding land for housing development to provide the investment funds for upgrading the airport facilities have also received qualified support response from members, on the condition that profits are pumped back into DTVA.” NECC is also backing plans for commercial development to the south of the airport which could bring a wider range of aviation related activities but with the proviso that there is a long term commitment to the development of commercial aviation facilities rather than a short term approach if the aims of the Masterplan are not quickly realised.

“Investment is required to improve service and make DTVA a more attractive option to business,” added Anderson. “Peel has done a great deal to market the airport, particularly the KLM and Eastern services which are seen as vital to companies in this area. Our members feel that DTVA could be marketed as a quick and efficient route for business travellers.

“There is a very strong desire amongst the local business community to see a thriving international airport in the south of the region. We support the airport and will continue to do so if the investment plans in the Masterplan are realised.

SPECIAL REPORT | SPRING 14

“NECC is very happy to work with Peel Holdings to promote the development of aviation and related services in the future and make DTVA a thriving facility once again.”

NECC was responding to Durham Tees Valley’s Masterplan consultation.

>> Three-pronged success McPS delivering a £1.2m contract for Dragados Offshore, expects a 35% rise in turnover for the final quarter of the financial year and plans major expansion this year.

South Shields based MCPS designs, manufactures and supplies anode based cathodic protection systems for the offshore oil and gas industry. With its headquarters and foundry on Middlefield Industrial Estate the company’s manufacturing facility has a casting capacity of 50 tonnes per week in zinc, aluminium and magnesium. When the business won a significant export contract with Spanish company, Dragados Offshore, which works with Statoil, MCPS needed funding to deliver the required bonds. Managing director Glenn English and financial controller David Bennett approached NatWest for the funding that would enable the business to fulfil the contract. It worked with UK Export Finance and together they were able to provide overseas bonding facilities worth more than €200,000. The funding has allowed the business to deliver the bonds without a cash outlay and has provided cashflow for raw materials.

Bennett said: “We have had the support of NatWest for many years but knowing that MCPS now has the combined support of the bank and a government run organisation like UK Export Finance, gives potential foreign clients added confidence when in contract negotiations with MCPS.”

Foreign clients have added confidence in negotiations

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OGN Group engineers at work at the Hadrian Yard

>> North Sea jobs boost OGN Group has won a multi-million pound contract for the construction of an 800-tonne process module in the North Sea, creating around 150 jobs.

The Tyneside-based offshore engineering, procurement and construction specialist will utilise a workforce of up to 500 personnel to deliver the 16-month module programme at OGN’s Hadrian Yard.

OGN’s contract has been signed with ConocoPhillips — partner of Chevron in the Britannia facilities — which is acting as operator for building of the module.

ConocoPhillips will also be overseeing work on the module for Chevron’s Alder highpressure, high-temperature subsea tie-back development in the UK North Sea. OGN has been engaged to fabricate and pre-commission the module incorporating key process equipment including a primary separator, condensate heater, gas cooler, water degasser, hydro-cyclones and condensate recycle pumps. This is the second significant contract award for a North Sea oil and gas development OGN has secured in recent months.

In November last year it won a major contract with EnQuest to undertake finishing and commissioning works on the EnQuest Producer, a 249m-long Floating Production, Storage and Offloading vessel.

Chief executive David Edwards said: “We are exceptionally proud to have been awarded this prestigious contract from such a well-respected, blue chip oil and gas operator. It is a further endorsement of the expertise and experience that the UK oil and gas supply chain can offer the industry.”

EXPORTING FOR GROWTH

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INTERVIEW

SPRING 14

Exports are central to the Government’s economic strategy and a key exporting region is the North East, where David Coppock heads UKTI. He talks to Peter Jackson

AN OPTIMUM TIME FOR EXPORTERS UK Trade and Investment, of which David Coppock is regional director for the North East, is pushing on an open door at the moment in encouraging businesses to export.

According to a recent report from the British Chambers of Commerce, exporting confidence is at an all-time high. Out of 2,500 firms across the UK which were surveyed, more than a third said they expected exports to grow and that they will recruit as a consequence.

Not that the organisation is planning to sit back and rely on expressions of optimism and statements of intent to become reality.

Coppock outlines to me a packed programme of events over the coming months.

Export Week, 7 to 11 April, is when UKTI will focus on working with partners and the IoD, the FSB and the Chamber of Commerce will all host events on its behalf.

On 7 and 8 May the British ambassador to Korea is visiting the region, bringing with him the Korean ambassador to the UK. “We are just working up a programme for them now,’’ says Coppock. “They are very much interested in looking at Korean interests in the North East and North East interests in Korea.”

The new minister for trade and investment Lord Livingston is visiting the region on May 15 and 16. He will be making two keynote speeches: one at the UKTI’s annual Export Awards Dinner on the night of 15 May at Ramside Hall, Durham; the second on 16 May to the Chamber of Commerce. He is also visiting several companies in the region.

Coppock says: “He is very focused on

SPECIAL REPORT | SPRING 14

extending partnerships, on getting more leverage on other partners. He wants us to involve a lot more partners in the UKTI’s process going forward.’’

Over summer The International Festival for Business will be in Liverpool running through June and July, which is expected to attract more than a million visitors. The North East is leading two days there – on 18 and 19 June.

“We’ll be hosting senior visitors from Benelux and we’ll be putting on a special event focusing on the Benelux market and on international trade and business opportunities in the Benelux,’’ says Coppock.

He explains that all this activity is in furtherance of the national strategy laid down for UKTI. “UKTI is still very focused on the national targets the Chancellor set for 2020 which are £1 trillion of exports and 100,000 new exporters for the country. To sit alongside that kind of top level objective there’s a whole raft of things going on.

“We are working very intensively now with the British Chambers of Commerce developing their overseas business, with the intention to have two waves of about 40 countries in total where the British Chambers would start to deliver UKTI’s services.

“We envisage wave one happening by 2015/16 and then wave two in 2017/18. So over that period we are looking to get much more private sector involvement in export delivery and international trade delivery through these overseas business networks.

We hope the North East will be part of that

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process. We have recently appointed a regional co-ordinator funded by UKTI and we would expect to see over the next five to six years a growth in private sector delivery of traditional UKTI services.’’

There is also to be an emphasis on MSBs – medium sized businesses of £25m to £500m annual turnover.

“Lord Livingston is very keen to see the MSB cadre of businesses across the UK contribute more to the export and trade agenda,’’ says Coppock. “Across the UK there are about 8,000 MSBs, in the North East there are about 200. We are hoping to work much more intensively with those 200 companies over the next year or two to really try to support and help and enhance and develop their sales between now and 2020.’’

UKTI North East region has appointed two dedicated trade advisors to work with the MSB base: Jonathan Gamblin and Chris Graham.

Coppock adds: “The new minister is very keen to get MSBs to work in a more partnership fashion and to bring their supply chains with them in terms of the export agenda. So it’s not just the MSBs, it’s also the businesses hanging onto the coat tails of the MSBs and getting the SMEs and their supply chains to work overseas.’’

Another strand of national policy is Reshore UK. For this initiative UKTI has joined forces with MAS, the Manufacturing Advisory Service, to explore opportunities for bringing manufacturing operations, which have previously offshored to overseas locations, back to the UK. >>

EXPORTING FOR GROWTH

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EXPORTING FOR GROWTH

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INTERVIEW

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INTERVIEW

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“It’s very early days for this initiative but we are hoping, with MAS, to be able to identify supply chains, SMEs and OEMs where activity has been taken offshore, where we might now have a competitive offer or a new or a different offer, a more cost effective offer in the UK,’’ says Coppock.

On the exports front there has been an encouraging development. For the first time, exports outside of Europe have surpassed exports into Europe.

He welcomes this. “It does seem as though North East business people are starting to go further afield to win orders and look for business. That’s what we have been trying to encourage over the last year or two, rather than just look at the more local markets within Europe. Europe is still crucially important and I think on the last figures Europe was something like 48% of the North East’s exports but 52% now is outside of Europe and that has been quite a sea change over the last year or two.

We are encouraged by that.’’

New markets of particular interest are – depending on the acronym of the day – MINT, denoting Malaysia, Indonesia, Nigeria and Turkey or MIST, standing for Malaysia, Indonesia, South Korea and Turkey.

Coppock explains: “Those markets are globally important and attractive. They have large, rapidly growing middle class populations and those middle class populations have a disposable income. They are markets which have rapidly growing GDP per head, therefore they are markets which should be of interest to North East companies.

“I would also highlight places like Mexico and Brazil which are strong markets for the North East. We have seen a lot of activity in Brazil of late. South Africa is making strong representation to us about wanting to build bridges between the North East and South Africa.’’

He also believes the UK is well placed for the China market after the City of London positioned itself as a trading centre for the Chinese currency, the renminbi.

“I think the City will lead the world as being an international trader in the renminbi, which puts China and the UK in a very strong position going forward. That’s excellent news.

You’ve also got Chinese interest in HS2 and

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Chinese interest in the new generation of nuclear power stations for the UK.’’ There continues to be a strong and ongoing relationship between the UK and the US which remains the UK’s primary market and continues to be the primary investor in the UK. “South America is also looking strong. We also have the Olympics and the World Cup coming up. There are tenders out and I would alert people to look at the UKTI Business Opportunities website where we post our regular tenders coming in from overseas.’’

However, we should not forget Europe, particularly Eastern Europe.

“The emerging economies of Poland, the Czech Republic etcetera are still vibrant and strong economies and they are investing very heavily in their hospital, their road and their rail and their various infrastructures and they are looking for new business parks.’’

In the Middle East, he says the UK’s position

long haul route with cargo.’’

He points out that the region has other strengths which make it a powerful contender in overseas markets.

“In terms of the sectors, as always the automotive sector and its supply chain are doing good work for us. Chemicals and pharmaceuticals and the contribution of Teesside chemical activity should not be forgotten and other sectors like the digital sector are coming through. We are seeing much stronger activity for some of our digital companies winning business internationally.

“We also shouldn’t forget the service sector.

We are keen to ensure that the service sector does well and we are doing some work with the trade association Construction Excellence and we are working with regional architects to develop their offer overseas.

He adds: “We’ve got five very strong universities in the region and all of them have

North East business people are starting to go further afield to win orders and look for business - what we’ve been trying to encourage over the last year or two with the Emirates is strong and developing and points out that Dubai has just invested heavily in the East Thames with the Dubai Gateway, the new port for London.

Here, the North East is better placed than other regions, with its direct flights between Newcastle and Dubai.

“The Emirates link has been fantastic, I can’t speak highly enough of it,’’ says Coppock.

“The airport and Emirates have led from the front. We have seen terrific business pull through, not just in terms of the Middle East but also into Australasia, because it’s a good hopping point onto Australasia. Their cargo is 100% booked, which is great news, and they’ve had to put on a bigger plane. We wish Newcastle Airport all the very best in their endeavours to bring other long haul activity to the North East and I suspect that the next strategic step for the North East is another

16

an international footprint in various ways, whether that’s overseas campus activity or whether that’s remote learning or remote delivery or whether through incubators or spinouts. All of those universities are doing very well in terms of their international business development. The proposition of the five key universities and their various strengths – and they all do have different strengths and they all are embedded in different parts of the global economy – really does enhance the regional offering, it does help the North East.”

The universities also add to the North East’s soft power. Thousands of overseas students have studied at the region’s universities and have returned to their own countries with fond memories, providing a diaspora of alumni.

Coppock says: “There’s a lot of good business links developed through that, ranging from the big names but down to less prominent people.

EXPORTING FOR GROWTH

SPRING 14

I was recently in Bangkok and the flight control director for Thai Airways came to shake my hand. He said he went to Newcastle University and he had great memories.

“Cultural links are very important. It’s very much about personal relationships and personality, particularly in Asia and the Middle East. They want to see you regularly, they want to know about you, they want to know about your family, they want to know about your background. It’s not about flying in and doing a deal and shaking hands and flying out again.

It’s very much about the cultural and personal and relationship aspects to business.’’

But, as well as strengths, there are weaknesses, or at least threats which cannot be ignored.

Coppock explains: “You come back to skills and new business start-ups. We really need a lot more of that in the North East. We need a stronger skills agenda. We need people with

EXPORTING FOR GROWTH

international skills, with language skills, with international marketing skills. We need lots more business start-ups so we can take those businesses to market as global companies.

That’s part of the process of closing the gap, of getting more people exporting.

The pipeline and the existing market is doing very well but we need to be feeding the existing market with more companies and more people across the region. That’s the slight concern I have around the skills agenda and the new start-ups agenda.’’

He points out that for those businesses willing to take the export plunge, they will find benefits that go far beyond increased sales opportunities. He reels off the statistics: firms that export are 11% more likely to survive; and firms that export are around 34% more productive than those that do not.

By the way, it does help sales: businesses earn

17

INTERVIEW

an extra £180,000 on average in the first 18 months after starting work with UKTI. He says: “There’s lots of empirical evidence that companies that export tend to be selflearning companies or knowledge developing companies. What exporting does in a broader sense for a company, as well as diversifying the risk in terms of its business portfolio, is to enhance profits but it also allows staff to develop personally and they become learning companies, they inherently begin to learn.

“That means that the company becomes more innovative, they tend to have staff who are more willing to put forward suggestions to enhance the company, to enlighten the company, to take it into new areas.

They tend to have better HR satisfaction scores and so on.

“Inherently the company tends to be a more profitable and productive company.’’ n

SPECIAL REPORT | SPRING 14

COMPANY PROFILE

SPRING 14

Sunderland companies driving export growth Sunderland’s thriving automotive, manufacturing and software sectors and growing offshore and renewables activities contribute hugely to the North East’s position as the only positive net exporting region in the UK Sunderland was recently named as one of the top four Small European cities for foreign direct investment (FDI) strategy, and eighth top Northern European city for FDI strategy in a study carried out by fDi, a Financial Times publication, of the most promising investment locations in Europe 2014/15.

Sunderland City Council’s business investment team has worked closely with the private sector to encourage more capital investment and new jobs to Sunderland in the last decade than any other city of its size across the UK. Over the past ten years, it has helped to secure 14,500 jobs and £2.5 billion of capital investment to the city.

AUTOMOTIVE STRENGTH Nissan Sunderland, the UK’s biggest car exporter, is strengthened by a local supply chain which boosts export values from the city to countries across the world. The supply chain includes worldclass companies such as TRW, Calsonic Kansei, Johnson Controls and Unipres.

Nissan’s chief executive Carlos Ghosn said that “the Sunderland plant is setting an important benchmark for quality and efficiency in Europe and around the world.”

2014 has seen the launch of Nissan’s new Qashqai model, the company’s flagship best-seller in Europe. First sold in 2006, it is now exported to 132 countries globally.

John Martin, Nissan’s Senior Vice President for Manufacturing, Purchasing and Supply Chain Management in Europe, said: “Sunderland City Council is very good at working with global companies, and has supported our growth at a local and regional level. They have strong links with the UK’s central government and it is through these relationships they ensure that their regional industrial policy is both aligned to and supported by national policy.”

Almost half of Nissan’s car parts, in cost terms, come from UK-based suppliers. “Making great cars

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Nissan Leaf in production at the Nissan Sunderland plant

The City Council has very good links with all of our suppliers and works closely with them helping them expand or relocate as their needs have developed JOHN MARTIN, NISSAN’S SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT FOR MANUFACTURING, PURCHASING AND SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT IN EUROPE requires great suppliers, and we have certainly got great suppliers here in the North East,” said John Martin. “The City Council has very good links with all of our suppliers and works closely with them helping them expand or relocate as their needs have developed. Many of our suppliers have less than 200 employees and the council is acutely aware of the need to support and encourage such small and medium sized enterprises, and its policies reflect this.”

MANUFACTURING WORLDWIDE Sunderland’s manufacturing strength is central to the North East’s success in opening up overseas markets.

Manufacturing company Haskel in Sunderland, a world leader in the design and manufacture of high pressure pumps and valves, has won new contracts

18

in the growing oil and gas industry in Angola, Dubai and Kazakhstan from clients which turned to the company because of its expertise in producing equipment that can both operate in and monitor high pressure environments.

The company now exports to more than 50 countries and overseas sales made up over half of its business last year. The success is down to a determined effort to find more markets for its products.

Angola is one of the ‘new’ countries that Haskel has been targeting. Export sales manager Simon Calvert said: “In Angola, the oil and gas industry is growing exponentially. Angola would probably be around one-fifteenth to one-twentieth of Haskel’s business and it’s growing. Five years ago, it accounted for very little. I would like it to be worth around £2m by 2015.”

EXPORTING FOR GROWTH

SPRING 14

COMPANY PROFILE

STRONG ORDER BOOKS Tiger Filtration, which was set up ten years ago, is now exporting its products from Sunderland to the US, Far East, South America, Middle East and across Europe. It has built a worldwide distributor network which sells over 60% of its alternative filter elements for in-line filtration, vacuum pumps and compressors to overseas customers.

In 2011, Tiger was awarded the Queen’s Award for International Trade.

Tiger Filtration managing director Bob Thompson said: “We’ve stayed in Sunderland despite overtures from other councils because of the fantastic care we get from Sunderland City Council.

The continuing support from the council’s business investment team translates into real added value for our business.”

Argus Powerbend, a tube manipulation and fabrication company based at Pennywell Industrial Estate invested over £500,000 in new machinery and technology after winning major new export contracts. Argus Powerbend’s bulging order book now includes work with customers across Europe, Brazil and India, together with global companies such as Caterpillar, JCB, Johnson Controls and John Deere.

Johan Swanepoel, quality engineering director at Argus Powerbend, said: “The workforce here is incredible. We have grown year on year since 2008 through a big export drive and winning customers such as Caterpillar Brazil, JCB and Nissan replacement models.”

RECORD YEAR The 300 year old Port of Sunderland, owned by the City Council, boasts superb natural strengths, a growing supply chain and continually updated facilities. In 2013 the port recorded its busiest year since shipbuilding ended in 1988. Traffic has increased into the docks by 84 per cent and major European players are increasingly using its facilities.

Odin Shipping, which relocated its office within the Port of Sunderland in 2011, uses the Port as a strategic UK base. A firm believer in the importance of diversification, it agrees that the Port is right to attract new types of offshore and renewable business whilst continuing to service export cargoes like scrap metal, limestone and import cargoes like wood pulp and steel products.

Peter Dickson, managing director of Odin Shipping, said: “We have exported well over

EXPORTING FOR GROWTH

(l to r) Cllr Paul Watson, Leader of Sunderland City Council and Johann Swanepoel, director of Argus Powerbend

a million tonnes of limestone to Denmark and Germany from Sunderland since the year 2000.

Last year we exported over 130,000 tonnes of locally quarried limestone to Europe, and we are now working on hopefully developing the Polish market.”

Odin Shipping believes that the port is well-placed to service new developments like Dogger Bank and that the 24hr deep water berths are an attractive proposition for the offshore industry. There is a ‘port multiplier’ effect - every time a ship docks there is a knock-on effect not just at the Port of Sunderland but within the city as local companies see an upturn in trade.

SOFTWARE STRENGTHS Sunderland’s position as a thriving hub of software-related industry has been nurtured by a strong network of organisations including local universities, Sunderland City Council and business specialists like Sunderland Software City. The welcoming environment has attracted companies which have thrived, such as Salecycle, Test Factory and Leighton Group, which have set up offices and won contracts in the US, Europe and other countries worldwide to grow strongly from Sunderland.

Sunderland based company 5G Technologies has set its sights on a lucrative Canadian market with the launch of a pilot product aimed at controlling energy use in process industry.

As a result of the product developed in Sunderland,

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5G Technologies has broken into new markets in Canada, including manufacturing, automotive, cement, glass and mining after recently signing a deal with one of the largest gold mining companies in the world.

Ananth Seshan, managing director of 5G Technologies said: “We wanted a base in Europe to develop an in-depth research strategy. We heard of the great relationship Sunderland has with software companies and the highly skilled graduates from surrounding universities.

Sunderland City Council was instrumental in helping find a suitable facility and the city is ideal for us to plan and develop into our next stages of growth.”

Sunderland’s innovative, enterprising companies will continue opening up foreign markets to make the most of opportunities in new and developing economies. By doing so they are creating new growth across the city, region and the UK.

To find out more about Sunderland as a business location go to info@makeitsunderland.com or telephone 0191 561 1194 www.makeitsunderland.com MAKE it Sunderland is delivered by Sunderland City Council

SPECIAL REPORT | SPRING 14

INTERVIEW

SPECIAL REPORT | SPRING 14

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INTERVIEW

New heights: Elaine Warburton sees vast international potential for Newcastle firm QuantuMDX

QuantuMDX not only has the potential to become one of the North East’s main exporters but also to transform lives around the world, as Elaine Warburton explains to Peter Jackson

TAKING CARE OF GLOBAL BUSINESS Medical devices company QuantuMDX is poised to reap the rewards of a global market worth hundreds of millions of pounds while transforming the way healthcare is delivered.

This is especially impressive, given that it started life just 12 years ago, operating out of a house garage in Sussex, set up by Elaine Warburton, who then worked in the hospital sector, and her business partner Jonathan O’Halloran, inventor of the company’s technology. The business is now located in Newcastle’s International Centre for Life Incubator Centre after a couple of relocations via London and Cape Town in South Africa.

In the last two years it has grown from three or four people to a team of 35. Its headquarters are in the Market Keeper’s House but it also rents labs from Newcastle University and it has subsidiaries in Chattanooga in the US and in Singapore.

In the US it has partnerships with Harvard and Yale universities and in Singapore with the country’s science and technology agency.

It has another subsidiary, a gene testing

EXPORTING FOR GROWTH

company called NorthGene, which does commercial DNA analysis using traditional equipment. But the company’s future lies in its pioneering technology.

Indeed, chief executive Elaine Warburton has just been awarded an OBE for her services to health innovation.

The product it has developed – which is set to transform healthcare around the world – is its Handheld Laboratory, which can deliver complex diagnostics in minutes for the price of a few pounds.

Warburton explains: “We felt that if healthcare was going to change then we needed to put the diagnostic result into the palm of a healthcare professional’s hand – very accurate results, very quickly and very cheaply.

“Over the past six years we have been gathering momentum and bringing different technologies from all over the world, from the communications industry, biology, chemistry, semiconductors and so on.’’

And next year QuantuMDX is going to be commercialising the world’s first handheld

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DNA sequencer. This is a handheld laboratory in which every molecular lab process has been miniaturised and this will take a diseasespecific credit card sized cartridge.

From a sample from a patient, within 15 minutes this will tell the practitioner what drug to prescribe, based on the DNA of the pathogen and – in some cases – the DNA of the patient.

“It’s partly the patient’s DNA but more likely to be the pathogen – the flu virus, the ‘c difficile’ and that type of thing. We analyse a pathogen’s DNA to identify what species it is and, most importantly, what drug will work against that pathogen,’’ says Warburton.

“We are able to analyse human DNA so we can analyse a cancer and tell what chemotherapy drugs may be best for that particular tumour and that particular individual.’’

The handheld device is currently about the size of an iPad but over the next six months that will be reduced to an iPad Mini size.

The device has not yet been taken to >>

SPECIAL REPORT | SPRING 14

INTERVIEW

SPRING 14

It’s a horrendous humanitarian challenge for malaria and TB and neglected diseases such as HIV and cancer

market and QuantuMDX earns some revenue from contract research for companies wanting to put their biology onto the device.

Initially the device will be rolled out in the developing world.

“The developing world basically has no diagnostics infrastructure, there are very few skilled resources out there,’’ says Warburton.

“It’s a horrendous humanitarian challenge for malaria and TB and neglected diseases such as HIV and cancer.

“We have a huge humanitarian focus right now where this device will provide First World diagnostics to developing countries.

“A health professional will be able to put this device in their pocket go out to rural areas and test a village for malaria or TB.’’ India and the Brics nations will be targeted first with the support of NGOs and organisations such as the Gates Foundation and the Clinton Foundation. These are less stringently regulated in health than developed nations.

“Potentially, our next market, while we undergo healthcare regulations such as FDA [Food and Drugs Administration], may be in food packaging and food testing and veterinary,’’ says Warburton.

Once the product is developed to FDA standard it can be rolled out to the developed world. The NHS is currently working with QantuMDX on testing.

“They see this as potentially revolutionising the NHS, not only in reducing the drugs budget because you are prescribing the right drug to the right patient for the right condition but also speed,’’ says Warburton.

“It takes two to three days to get a blood result back, maybe even a week. If you can do it in front of the patient at consultation in 10 minutes your GP can triage you and say

SPECIAL REPORT | SPRING 14

whether you have a common cold or flu. They can prescribe the right drug immediately.’’

She reckons that this could be happening in three years.

It would be a radical departure to have new technology available in the developing world before the developed world.

“They will have a leapfrog in technology before we do,’’ she agrees.

The greatest barriers in developed countries are likely to be integrating use of the devices into long established organisations and systems of pathology labs and GPs. “All of the healthcare infrastructure is set up not to have this,’’ she says. “What we think will happen is that it will come in for various diseases and then, as people get used to having a diagnosis on a handheld and trusting it, it will gradually start to integrate into care pathways.’’

Clearly, the commercial potential for QuantuMDX is enormous.

“Working with HIV, TB, malaria and things like that – that market is literally in the hundreds of millions,’’ she says.“You could put silly numbers round it – in the billions. If you look at other companies working in our arena with traditional technologies, it is in the early hundreds of millions.’’

She adds: “We are being supported by the Government, by the NHS and by UKTI and so there is no reason why we can’t make those great figures and, of course, we are wanting to stay in the North East. We have big ideas of being a very big fish in a smaller pond and that’s quite exciting.

“There is absolutely no reason to think that we can’t have 250 to 500 employees in science, business, sales and a lovely big headquarters in Newcastle. There’s no reason we can’t be

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a very big company.’’ That does depend on continuing to fend off businesses anxious to acquire QuantuMDX. But she, Jonathan O’Halloran and her husband and chief financial officer Julian Warburton own a majority of the shares and do not plan to sell.

“We decided not to go down the venture capital route because we have a humanitarian focus and VCs and banks don’t like that, so we have been funded through major UK, European and South African grants and angel funding from a group of high net worth individuals with a philanthropic bent.’’

QuantuMDX has been embraced by the North East since its arrival in the region.

“It has been absolutely brilliant,’’ says Warburton. “We’ve been very much supported

by Science City, by Newcastle University, the International Centre for Life, by UKTI.’’ The company aims to begin commercialising the product in the second half of 2015 with a warfarin test to establish whether a patient is suitable for the blood thinning drug and, if so, in what dose, and a malaria test.

The warfarin test will initially be rolled out in India and the malaria test in Gabon and then Tanzania and Kenya.

QuantuMDX has launched a crowd funding campaign to help expand its clinical trials of the malaria diagnostic.

Warburton says: “Our crowd funding campaign is unique. Not only are we looking for contributors to support this phenomenally worthy cause to help save many hundreds, if not thousands, of children’s lives, but we’re also offering everyone the chance to leave a lasting legacy in the fight against malaria by contributing their winning ideas to the look and feel of our device and to take part in re-naming it from the current research name of Q-POC. Who knows, perhaps we’ll find the next Jonathan Ive.’’ There will be a soft launch of a working prototype device in the summer and then QuantuMDX can take its technology to the world.

Warburton says: “We are a North East and a global company. We are harnessing the best bits from around the world and making a device that is for the world and will change the world.’’ n

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SUCCESS ON THE HIGH SEAS Tees Components has to play the long game when it comes to exporting, as general manager Sharon Lane explains to Peter Jackson >>

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We supply to the US Navy, government research organisations, to ice-breakers in the Atlantic...

For Saltburn-based Tees Components the export journey began when it acquired from a US customer the intellectual property of a product it had worked on.

The family owned business, which employs 65 people, does machining and fabrication and has a 50-year history of providing heavy engineering services.

The product – now called the Tees White

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Gill Thruster - it acquired in 2005 was an azimuth thruster which is fitted to a ship as a back up propulsion system in the event of a main engine failure. It is also used when the main engines are off to manoeuvre the ship in confined areas such as docks.

Tees Components general manager Sharon Lane explains: “Large ferries, for example, have to be able to manoeuvre very accurately

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into tight spaces. It’s usually in the bow but it can be in the stern. Some ships will have one at each end of the ship. It allows the ship to turn 360 degrees on its own axis, rather than shunting backwards and forwards.

“We supply to the US Navy, also government research organisations, on ice-breakers that carry out research in the Antarctic. It’s a unit that sits inside the ship so the bottom of it is flush with the hull of the ship, so there’s nothing hanging down – that’s one of its key USPs as a product. It can be used if you’ve got people in the water or wildlife. For the military, the movement’s not detectable when it’s propelling the ship.’’

Sales of the Tees White Gill Thruster consist in either making new engines for ships, when the vessels are first built, or servicing or maintaining those already fitted.

Lane says: “There are about 100 ships worldwide that are fitted with these units.

These ships are regularly changing hands with different owners and operators and could be literally anywhere in the world. A big part of the business is being able to support those existing units with spares and services for the mechanical unit itself and also the control system that goes with it, because control systems on ships are constantly updated and the technology has to be linked in with the dynamic positioning system that’s on the ship.

“As part of the acquisition of the product we had to establish teams of engineers who had the product knowledge and technical ability to be able to go out and trouble shoot existing units. So part of the export sales is sending

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out spare parts and engineers, often at very short notice to dry dock or at sea to carry out routine maintenance.’’

Tees Components is trying to break into the oil and gas sector, believing the thruster is ideal for offshore support vessels.

“But we still really find that our customers are the navy and also university research,’’ says Lane. “They are fitted to Nasa missile recovery ships and the ship that did the underwater survey of the Titanic. It’s for really precise manoeuvring without disturbing anything.’’

Shipbuilding is a long term business and the company has to be patient and be prepared for a lot of work in securing orders. It also takes about 50 weeks to make a thruster.

“From a sales strategy point of view it’s a very long game for us because we have to make naval architects aware of the product for them to have it in their minds when they are designing a ship, which, by the time it’s funded and organised, they would possibly order from us four or five years later,’’ says Lane.

“It’s not something where you can see a 12 month return on your activity. But, we are in it for the long term, we know that it’s a good product and we can grow our market share.

When we are looking at talking about new markets, it’s a case of trying to get the product to ship owners, ship yards and to the designers who specify as well and, of course they are often in different countries, so a ship might be owned by a Norwegian firm, designed in the UK and made in Korea. So, to say you are going into different markets is not as straight forward as selling a box of components.’’

When Tees Components took on the product it was already established in North America, giving the company a good customer base in America and Canada. Its first priority was to ensure it protected that and looked after those customers.

But, a few years after it was in a position to start talking to UKTI about how it could take the product into different markets.

It decided to start with a Passport to Export programme and, in the first 12 months, it attended workshops to identify its first target markets and how to use the funding it was able to get from UKTI. Lane says: “We identified Brazil as one of

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the key markets – a major shipbuilder and also user because of the oil fields. We also identified Korea as another market we would like to work for.

“We came up with a strategy for two years where we would do trade visits, we would attend exhibitions and exhibit ourselves and we got to a point where we were able to identify and appoint an agent who now represents us in Brazil. We have been to the major marine event there for the past two years, which is Navalshore, which is in Rio in August. We have exhibited at that twice now with our agent.’’

The Brazilian oil company Petrobras brought a roadshow to Newcastle and London and invited UK firms to represent themselves and their products and services. From that, Petrobras selected 12 companies in the UK to go to Brazil and present to it in more depth with a view to adding them to their supply chain. Tees Components was one of those 12 companies.

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“Last January myself and a sales engineer went on a week long trade mission which was led by Ken Clarke to Rio de Janeiro to visit Petrobras and the shipyards and ship owners as well,’’ says Lane. “Following that we had a return visit from Brazilian shipyards. We hosted them a couple of weeks ago when they visited our site and came for a tour and had a presentation of the product.’’

The company had its literature translated into Brazilian Portuguese and Portuguese subtitles added to a 3D animation showing a model of how the product works in ships.

“That was through working with UKTI, attending their export workshops on how to overcome language and cultural barriers and how your material is presented to overseas customers and making sure it is in line with their expectations,’’ says Lane.

She adds: “We have been added to the supplier bases of a number of ship owners and ship yards in Brazil, apart from Petrobras.

We hope that the next time they have a >>

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requirement for this kind of propulsion that we will be able to be included in that project.’’

Another market Tees Components identified with UKTI was South Korea. Contact was renewed with an agent with whom the company had had a relationship in the past.

The agent was supplied with new marketing material translated into Korean for use in an annual trade show.

Fortunately, the attempt on the South Korean market coincided with a new project by Kiost, the Korean Institute of Ocean Science and Technology.

“They are building a new high tech research vessel which is exactly the kind of application that our thruster is suitable for,’’ says Lane.

“That fell perfectly and our agent was newly invigorated and had all the materials to be able to work with the customer which is a shipyard in Korea. Again, we had some trade visits over there with UKTI support, which has now culminated in receiving an order for that thruster.

“We received the order in December. Myself and the md had gone over in June and the technical guys had been in January. So the whole of last year we were negotiating to try to secure that order, that is for delivery this November.’’

As a result of these initiatives, between a quarter and a half of Tees Components’ £5m annual turnover is export and it is building on that success.

“After the first 12 months on UKTI Passport to Export, we registered for a further 12 months and a second lot of funding and assistance,’’ says Lane. “We are now looking at Russia and Norway. We’ve got agents in Brazil and Russia who are building on the work that we did last year. We have the agent in the States looking after that customer base that we already had and growing that.

“This year we are looking at trade visits to Russia. I’m going to Russia in April to Moscow and St Petersburg with UKTI just to get a basic entry into how the marine sector works and trying to identify agents to represent us there.

We have an enquiry to supply to a fleet of Russian ships, which is still in progress and we are still hoping to win that order.’’

She adds: “There was quite a learning curve to go through in terms of exporting - the

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There was quite a steep learning curve to go through in terms of exporting and there has been a lot to put in place and understand

legal aspects and commercial aspects, the documentation and the different payment methods and the foreign currency. There has been quite a lot we have had to put in place and understand such as staff training and now that we have done that for the product we can use it for selling our services that we do domestically overseas.

Although we haven’t been specifically working with UKTI on that it has had the knock on effect that it has been easier for us to gain

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other overseas customers.’’ The company currently builds one or two bow thrusters a year but it has recently bought a second site with a large workshop space and it is investing in new fabrication equipment to support increased sales.

It is recruiting, having taken on five people in the last few months and expecting to create another five to 10 jobs in the next 18 months.

In two years it plans to be in a position where it is making four or five thrusters a year. n

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Key component: Sharon Lane is gearing up for global successes at her Saltburn base

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EUROPEAN MASTERS Surreal Creative started down the export path just five years ago when recession bit and the regional market suffered. And managing director Ian Smith hasn’t looked back since, he tells Peter Jackson Some businesses set out with big ambitions but Rainton Bridge-based Surreal Creative wasn’t one of them.

Ian Smith, who founded the business seven years ago, cheerfully admits that he had no big ideas and there was nothing – despite the name – to make Surreal stand out from the crowd.

He recalls: “Initially we were just a traditional design company. I’d previously been director of a large design and print business in the North East and decided to set Surreal up on my own.

We had a couple of big clients but, in general, we were just a run of the mill design business.’’

At that time a design business could get by by being run of the mill.

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As Smith says: “In the good old days grants were available for websites for the world and his mate, everybody had One North East and Durham and Newcastle universities as clients.’’

But, when the recession really hit home in 2009, that comfortable world was shattered.

Smith says: “Let’s be honest, there’s an awful lot of design and print businesses around in the region and the value of work in the North East was just getting slaughtered and everybody was fighting for the same stuff. We decided to push the boundaries out a little bit further and not become North East-centric.’’

Fortunately Surreal had a client in Liverpool, which was part of Sonae Industria, a Portuguese group which is one of the largest wood panel manufacturers in the world. The

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creative work which Surreal was doing for the Liverpool operation began to be noticed by the rest of the organisation and the five-man Rainton Bridge outfit was invited to pitch for a group project.

“We won that over a large French agency and a large German agency,’’ says Smith. “That really was the turning point because for that client we developed their first ever global brand.’’

Since then it has built on its relationship with Sonae Industria and has picked up other clients in Portugal and Sonae Industria subsidiaries in Germany and France.

In July last year Surreal took over a Portuguese business, called Surreal PT, which it relaunched in December.

Surreal took a strategic decision to base a new subsidiary in Porto, northern Portugal.

Smith explains: “When we did our research, working very closely with UKTI from their reports we realised that all the global agencies had set up bases in Lisbon but all the research we did showed us that all the manufacturing was done in northern Portugal, so we set up in Porto. The feedback we get from the Portuguese is that we made a really astute move because those businesses don’t want to travel to Lisbon.’’

Surreal has already made contact with three of the top 10 companies in Portugal and it is >>

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currently working on a project with Symington Family Estates, one of the biggest port houses in Porto. It is also working on a project for a company called Amorim, the biggest cork manufacturer in the world.

For a British company, working in Portugal is pushing on an open door because of the country’s strong historical links with Britain, particularly in Porto, home to the port wine trade. There is even a British Portuguese Chamber of Commerce of which Surreal is a member.

Beyond Portugal, Surreal is now the European brand manager for US company Stryker, one of the biggest medical companies in the world. It handles its entire European franchise, working across 12 of their businesses, handling all its marketing and brand strategy.

Now about 60% of Surreal’s annual turnover comes from Europe.

Smith says: “We are dealing with people in Holland, in France, in Germany, in Spain, in Portugal and also key clients in London.

“We have very few – three – clients in the North East.’’

Working overseas has also changed the nature of the work Surreal does for its clients.

Smith explains: “We started to realise that for all the clients we were working on, we were probably working on brand strategy more than design. We are now brand strategists, we work with organisations long before they know what they want to do and we then develop a strategy based on their business plans, their projections, what they are aiming to do.

“Of course we are still designers, of course we still do websites, of course we still come up with things, but we inevitably work with clients, not for clients. If somebody comes to us and says we need a website, we inevitably say: why?

“That’s how we’ve changed, over the last four years, we have gone from being a traditional North East design agency into an international brand agency. We talk to clients now, European-wide about their plans and their strategy.’’

Now Surreal has 10 people in the UK and four in Portugal. It hopes that annual turnover will double to £1.5m in the next 12 months. This will be driven by the Portuguese operation and

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new markets. Smith says: “I’ve been across to the US and met with the embassies in the States, particularly in New York. Stryker is based around the New York region.

“We were told, if you have an American client, in the US, and you come across as a British agency, people will be knocking on your door.

What I want to do is settle Portugal down first and get a Euro base. The US is one of the countries we are trying to target. We also work with Nike and if we go to the US with Nike on our arm and Stryker we are probably working with two of the largest companies in the US.’’ Surreal has learned many lessons about selling overseas.

Smith says: “There are huge differences between the nations: between the Iberian Peninsula, the Germans and the French.

to £700m turnover, we offered to set up an office out there,’’ he says. “But the client said, `I don’t want you to set an office up in Germany’. I said `why not we’ll be on your doorstep?’ He said ‘Because then you will employ German people and we will get German design’. The creative hub will always be in the North East. We tell people all your creativity comes from the UK and they love that. Cool Britannia is still cool.’’

Surreal has also learned the advantage of getting help.

“One thing I have learned is: work alongside UKTI. Don’t look at UKTI as being a method to get a grant to help you get into Europe. Look at getting into Europe and then, if you get a grant, it’s a bonus. If you align yourself and work closely with UKTI, you will not believe the help that these guys will give you. You’ve

We started to realise that for all the clients we were working on, we were probably working on brand strategy more than design

They might be joined by common borders but they are worlds apart. You have to know simple things like the difference having an English strapline makes in different countries and how you need to develop websites. If you are thinking about targeting Germany or any of the Baltic, states your websites need to be designed in a slightly different way, for no other reason than the words are normally 10 times longer. The Germans like brochures but the Portuguese are much more online and these are the nuances that we have managed to pick up.’’

Despite the overseas success, Surreal is determined to remain firmly rooted in the North East, which, says Smith, is a great creative hub.

“For our German client, which has a £600m

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got to pay for it at the end of the day, it’s not free, but they will happily check out areas for you, do research for you, get you in front of people who they know have influence. Or you can decide to do it on your own on a shoestring and you will go at a tenth of the pace.’’

He also urges would-be exporters not to be afraid of a language barrier.

“At first I used to feel really guilty about not speaking any languages but international businesses all speak English, it is their language of choice. It suddenly dawned on me when we were in meetings where we would have the French and the Germans and the Spanish and the Portuguese, it’s probably the only language everybody speaks. We forget about it, but it’s the way the Italian speaks to

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INTERVIEW

Euro vision: Ian Smith’s team has made waves across Europe and also continues to apply its expertise to North East-based brands the German, it’s the way the German speaks to the French, they all use English.

“All the creative we ever do, anywhere in Europe, is done in English, then we translate.

We never design in the language we are going over there for. We design in English and once they like the look and feel of the strategy we have come up with, we then convert it to their language. Don’t be embarrassed about only speaking English, it is the world language.’’

In common with many successful exporters, Surreal has found that the benefits of selling overseas far exceed the extra costs.

Smith explains: “One of the purposes was to go away and reinvent ourselves and come back as a different business because anybody

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who did know us in the North East previously would have just seen us as another me-too can-do design company.

“Now that we have come back to the North East we have come back with a higher value for our hours. We’ve managed to increase our hourly rate, probably by 120%.’’

He adds: “We now want to bring this experience that we have got to help the North East. There’s an awful lot of agencies will help them get a brochure translated, but we’ve lived in Europe for the last three years doing work for Europeans to sell products in the UK and we understand the nuances.’’

Smith is anxious that other businesses should export – for the benefit of the North East.

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“There are just too many of our businesses which prefer to fight each other on each other’s door step as opposed to going outside the region,’’ he says.

And he recalls that exporting was never part of the original plan.

“When we started out we never had the foggiest idea we were going to be doing this. I still sometimes sit behind my desk and wonder how the hell I have just written a brand strategy for a multi-billion pound a year company? I travel quite a bit now, I’m in Germany next week and I’m in Portugal the week after.

“I often sit on a plane and think, how the hell did I end up here?’’ n

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INTERVIEW

MAKING A DENT IN NEW MARKETS One Tees Valley firm is all smiles after a string of export successes, as Peter Jackson discovers WhiteWash Laboratories of Middlesbrough is barely four years old but is already exporting all over the world with ambitions to find new markets.

The company is a provider of teeth whitening and oral care products including teeth whitening strips and gels, sonic whitening electric toothbrushes, nano-silver toothbrushes and whitening toothpastes which have been developed and formulated by UK dentists.

Polished performer: WhiteWash Laboratories is fast becoming a global name in dental products

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WhiteWash was set up in 2010 by Matthew Lloyd, a practising dentist, who realised there was a market from the number of inquiries he received from clients about teeth whitening products. On a trip to the US he came across whitening strips which are cheaper and more comfortable for the patient to apply.

He and his business partners then developed a similar product which they launched in the UK. “Since then we’ve developed a suite of products around that whitening strips range,’’ explains managing director Tom Riley.

“We now have whitening strips, whitening gel, which are peroxide products which can only be sold through a dentist and then we have maintenance products such as whitening toothpaste and electric brushes.’’

WhiteWash formulates the products which are manufactured elsewhere to its specifications.

It works with various laboratories on R&D and to formulate new products.

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“You have to spend a bit of time getting the product right, that’s the most important thing,’’ says Riley.

The products are sold via a dental wholesaler to dental practices and – in some cases – direct to the public through the website.

Within a year of being set up the business was exporting. The company sells overseas through distributors. About a third of its £200,000 annual turnover is export sales. It sells its products in Scandinavia and the Baltic, Germany, Poland, Hungary and Russia and it has recently launched with new partners in Switzerland and Portugal.

“From the outset we were export oriented,’’ says Riley. “We always knew that we wanted to export the products. Our first export country was the Philippines.’’

The company signed up to UKTI’’s Passport to Export programme in December 2012 in a bid to explore opportunities overseas. In March >>

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We’ve now created a truly international network of distributors and hope to add more in Brazil and Australia soon...

last year it used the support of the Tradeshow Access Programme to attend the International Dental Show in Cologne, Germany – the biggest exhibition in Europe for dental health care – where it showcased its products.

The show generated a great deal of interest, which led to the appointment of new distributors in Sweden, The Baltics, Germany and Hungary.

The company also now exports to other European markets as well as the Middle East, Asia and Russia and its successful export strategy was recognised when, in March 2013, it was presented with the Export Award at the Bionow Biomedical Awards, sponsored

by UKTI. What’s the secret of the firm’s success?

Riley says: “There is quite a bit of kudos in having products made in Britain. The whole ethos of the WhiteWash range is to have a really good product and to package it really well. We spent a lot of time making sure the products look good. The third thing is to make sure it’s a good price.’’

WhiteWash Laboratories has now commissioned Overseas Market Introduction Service (OMIS) reports for Australia and Brazil, which have helped identify possible distributors and it recently took part in a market visit to Brazil.

Riley says: “We’re thrilled with the progress

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we’ve made in the last year and as a result of the new export markets we’ve tapped into our business is continuing to grow.

“As a young company, the support from UKTI really gave our export strategy a great start and we were delighted that our efforts were recognised at the Bionow Biomedical Awards.

We’ve now created a truly international network of distributors and hope to add more in Brazil and Australia soon.”

WhiteWash is now finding increasing demand for own-label products in Switzerland, Russia, Germany and the Middle East.

The company has learned the value of getting to know its distributors personally.

Riley explains: “When we first started out we got a lot of interest through our website and you might do a deal over email and we have had a couple of disputes with people we don’t work with any more. Recently we have been going out to visit the distributors or met them in the UK and found that having a face-to-face meeting makes a big difference. It might be quite expensive but it’s definitely worthwhile in the long run.

“Also you might find that the distributor might place a larger order or order a product they wouldn’t previously have ordered because maybe they didn’t understand the benefits of the product.’’

Riley has just returned from South East Asia

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to oversee the setting up of a branch office in South Korea. Last year he went to Serbia and Hungary, Brazil, Sweden, Switzerland and Germany.

WhiteWash wants to find more distributors for mainland Europe, particularly in France and Spain. It is also in talks with a large US company to supply it with own label products.

It is also working on the Brazilian and Chinese markets.

“If everything we are working on comes off this year turnover should jump quite significantly and we are aiming for £1m this year,’’ Riley says.

Stephen Muir, one of UK Trade & Investment’s international trade advisers who has worked closely with the company, says: “WhiteWash Laboratories has had quite a year and made a great deal of progress as the business continues to grow, exporting its products to an ever increasing number of markets including Europe, the Middle East, Asia, Russia and Australia.

“The company is a great example of a North East firm successfully competing in the global race and UKTI is committed to helping others follow in their footsteps. We provide a wide range of support and our latest Exporting is GREAT campaign aims to encourage companies to contact UKTI to find out more about exporting.” n

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INTERVIEW

Reasons to smile: (l to r) WhiteWash Laboratories’ sales director Chris McPhillips with fellow director Tom Riley

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SHAPING SKYLINES AROUND THE WORLD Ryder Architecture has found exporting to be profitable in more ways than one and looks forward to exciting times Newcastle-based Ryder Architecture first worked overseas in the early 1990s and since then international work has helped the business diversify and grow as well as provide greater opportunities for staff.

Fortunately, the onset of the recent recession in the UK coincided with an opportunity to pursue a major healthcare project with a Hong Kong-based practice, and the collaboration helped reduce the firm’s exposure to domestic difficulties.

After making several visits and presentations at conferences – with UKTI support – Ryder landed a master planning commission in Dalian in North East China.

This represented a challenge for the firm,

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to commit cash and senior personnel and finance to building its overseas profile given the prolonged period before seeing a return, especially during the recession.

Now, however, they are realising the benefits for the whole business and are confident of a good return on investment.

But the firm has also found that working overseas has had other benefits, not so easily identifiable on the bottom line but which, nevertheless, make for a stronger and more rounded business.

Managing partner Mark Thompson says: ‘The buzz and excitement generated by people working on projects on the other side of the world and having the opportunity to visit is impossible to quantify, but is certainly an advantage in retaining and attracting talent.

"An international portfolio has also helped our credibility when bidding for projects in the UK providing greater diversity and a more robust foundation for growth.”

Having seen the value of exporting, developing its international portfolio will be a key driver for Ryder in the coming years.

UK design skills are valued in fast-growing markets such as China, Hong Kong and

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Singapore so Ryder is able to sell expertise in specialist sectors such as healthcare.

Thompson adds: “Looking at the opportunities being presented to Ryder now, despite the almost fatal impact of the recession, these are the most exciting times I have experienced.

We are at the start of an exciting journey onto the international stage.’’ n

Ryder in a nutshell Ryder Architecture was set up in 1953

by Messrs Ryder and Yates. It now has an annual turnover of more than £7m with offices in Newcastle, Glasgow, Liverpool and London. It also has a small team based in Hong Kong.

The firm, which employs about 120 staff, works across a range of sectors including: infrastructure and transport; health; education; police and other public buildings; office; retail; leisure and residential.

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INSIGHT

Ryder is also engaging overseas through the BIM Academy BIM Academy is a collaboration between Northumbria University and Ryder Architecture founded in 2010 as a centre of excellence for BIM, Business Information Modelling, which is using the most sophisticated 3D modelling systems to assist with designing buildings.

Since its foundation, it has been delivering research and consultancy to industry, as well as supporting the university’s multidisciplinary curriculum for the built environment.

BIM Academy has won several international awards for its leadership of multidisciplinary BIM initiatives over the last two years, including Build Qatar Live, an international design competition involving 48 hours to work on an iconic design project, alongside teams often based across different countries, against international competition.

An international team led by BIM Academy, has also won a virtual design competition for a new convention centre in Sydney, Australia, 'Build Sydney Live'.

BIM Academy brought together a strong team of building design professionals from various disciplines comprising of Ryder Architecture, Colour UDL Landscape and Northumbria University and AECOM from Australia who provided engineering, sustainability, visualisation and cost consultants. They were supported by cloud based BIM software providers Kykloud and dRofus based in Newcastle and Oslo.

The team was the overall winner of the 48 hour competition.

The challenging competition brief called for a convention centre on the Darling Harbour site in Sydney. The submissions were judged on sustainability, design excellence, collaborative working and innovative combined use of Building Information Modelling technologies.

Team BIM Academy used 36 major design and analysis applications from 18 software vendors during the competition.

Mark Stodgell, BIM Academy's technical director says: "Many people assume that

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everyone working on a BIM project needs to be using the same software platform but the last 48 hours have shown that with proper planning and communication, true interoperability, particularly using the IFC format is now a day to day reality. The boundaries of what was considered BIM have now well and truly blurred into normal project working methods.”

Now BIM Academy has joined forces with Hong Kong University to deliver an initiative to give industry clients in Hong Kong a greater understanding of best practice in Building Information Modelling implementation and project management.

Last year the Academy began delivering a series of collaborative workshops to provide a greater understanding of the effective application of BIM workflows and technologies to projects in the building and infrastructure sectors. AECOM, Atkins and Hong Kong Jockey Club were among those who attended.

The Hong Kong initiative followed a rising awareness of BIM in the territory and the business case for its application in the built environment to support improved cost efficiency, quality safety and the low carbon agenda.

The workshops brought best practice gained from real UK industry project experience and government sponsored guidance to explain

the practical application of BIM throughout the briefing, procurement and operation stages.

The workshop sessions provided clients, consultants, contractors, suppliers and facility managers with a greater understanding of the multidisciplinary practices required to successfully implement BIM and the management processes required.

The BIM Academy team was made up of managing director Peter Barker and John Lorimer, formerly capital programme director of Manchester City Council, and a member of the UK BIS BIM steering group.

Peter Barker says: “The recently published UK Government Construction Strategy 2025 places great emphasis on smart working and the opportunity to export cutting edge UK skills to an expanding global construction market which is predicted to expand by 70% over the next 12 years. We see this initiative in Hong Kong as a great example of how UK specialist expertise in BIM can support this vision.”

John Lorimer says: “BIM is a fusion of process and technology and needs to be carefully planned and managed if it is to deliver full potential, particularly to the end user. This is a great opportunity for us to share the practical expertise we have gained in the UK with our fellow professionals in Hong Kong.” n

The boundaries of what was considered BIM have now well and truly blurred into normal project working methods

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SPECIAL REPORT | SPRING 14

INTERVIEW

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EXPORTING FOR GROWTH

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INTERVIEW

BRIDGING THE GULF UK Trade & Investment (UKTI) has supported the growth of Cundall’s business in new markets, steering the company in the direction of export success

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Since it was set up in Newcastle and Edinburgh in 1976, Cundall has become a leading multi-disciplinary engineering consultancy, just as its five founders intended.

The company’s export journey began in 2003 when a staff member who had been based in London moved to Australia. He decided to research the market and went on to develop a foothold for Cundall’s international business.

Today, the practice operates from 20 locations in 11 countries, providing engineering consultancy and sustainability advice to clients across the UK, in the Middle East and North Africa, Asia, Australia and Europe. >>

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INTERVIEW

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Global hub: Exports now account for more than 30% of Cundall’s business - an achievement reached with vital support from UKTI Cundall’s 450 global staff offer a full range of integrated engineering services. Each project – whether it is a high rise building in Australia, a school in the UK or office space in China – is allocated a dedicated team led by a partner/ director to provide experience and guidance.

“In over 35 years since we were first established, we have stuck to our founders’ fundamental vision - to provide professional and high-quality solutions that satisfy each client’s unique needs,” says Carole O’Neil, HR and training partner at Cundall.

“Our fresh approach to design produces award-winning buildings that embody sustainability and innovative thinking. We integrate environmental considerations into our solutions to encompass everything from transport and energy use, to how people will ultimately use buildings. We are proud of our achievements in reducing the environmental impact of our business and our projects, and in driving change in the property industry in the countries where we operate.”

In Cundall’s first year of export, overseas work accounted for 1% of its business.

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Today it accounts for more than 30% and UKTI has guided it along the way since the company first got in touch in 2009, with an international trade adviser (ITA) acting as a sounding board as it considered which markets to invest in.

Once a preliminary decision has been made, the UKTI’s overseas market introduction service, OMIS, has provided a means of gathering more in-depth research, understanding the local market, identifying key contacts and engineering introductions to the right people.

This approach was particularly useful when Cundall was considering whether to establish a presence in Qatar in 2010. The company had already set up an office in Dubai and the results of an initial investigation into the potential of Qatar were encouraging. So, it commissioned an OMIS asking the UKTI team based at the British Embassy in Doha to scope out the market in more detail, targeting 10 to 15 local businesses which had a synergy with its own work, and relevant government agencies.

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“We had found OMIS useful in the past, and decided to commission a report for Qatar,” says O’Neil. “Being completely new to the market, our ITA helped us to develop a more specific brief so that the local UKTI staff could use it as the basis of enquiries on our behalf.

“Once we were clear what we were asking them to do, they got in touch with the people we wanted to target. An introduction from the British Embassy undoubtedly holds more weight than if we had approached them through a commercial agent or on our own. In this way, UKTI helped us to be better networked and sowed the seeds of opportunities for us to pursue.”

Satisfied that an investment in Qatar was justified, Cundall opened an office in Doha in 2011. Now, the company has completed, and is working on, a number of local projects, including: a confidential palace project for a VIP; and the health and wellness facilities for Qatar Foundation’s ambitious ‘Education City’ project, creating sports facilities to the highest olympic standards. This project is targeting Gold status under the LEED

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INTERVIEW

accreditation scheme for green buildings.

Meanwhile, Cundall’s close relationship with UKTI and its ITA continues.

“We are proud to have been able to grow organically, to be a global business, with the help of export experts such as UKTI along the way,” says O’Neil.

“Building a strong export business takes longer and can cost more than you might think. You need to be patient and make sure that you thoroughly understand the obligations and bureaucratic hoops in the markets that you are planning to work with.

“Having UKTI on board is a valuable asset. Its ITAs are incredibly helpful and assist you in getting things right in the first place, its incountry teams have at their disposal far more local knowledge than we could gather quickly ourselves and OMIS is a cost effective way of getting quality market research done. We’ve been really happy with the results and will continue to make use of UKTI’s support.” n

The UK and Qatar The UK is a major trading partner for Qatar, and healthy bilateral relations date back to the 19th century. UK exports of goods to Qatar in 2010 were valued at £990m, representing a 27% increase on 2009. Qatar’s oil and gas sector accounts for around 60% of its GDP and gives it one of the highest income per capita figures in the world. Over recent years Qatar has embarked on a programme of economic diversification. There have been substantial infrastructure and development projects undertaken including new oil and gas facilities, ports, an airport, new roads, hotels, museums and residential compounds. This is expected to continue into the foreseeable future as Qatar prepares to host the 2022 FIFA World Cup. For further information about business opportunities in Qatar, visit www.ukti.gov.uk/qatar

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Be prepared: Cundall’s Carole O’Neil firmly believes in the power of pre-export market research

We are proud to have been able to grow organically and to be a global business with the help of export experts

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INSIGHT

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FORGING NEW TIES Exports are key to the Government’s strategy, with a target to more than double their value to £1 trillion by 2020. We report on a £2.4m campaign to achieve that Businesses which export tend to be businesses that prosper – for good reasons.

Exporting offers significant benefits for those prepared to explore overseas opportunities.

Research shows that companies which export gain a 34% increase in productivity in their first year of exporting and are 11% more likely to survive that those operating in domestic markets alone.

Apart from the increased sales opportunities,

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it seems that the exposure to overseas competition can generate new ideas, processes and products, helping companies refine and sharpen their offer. In a UK Trade and Investment (UKTI) study, 57% of surveyed companies said their presence in overseas markets had enabled a level of growth not otherwise possible.

Furthermore, despite intense competition, UK products, services and expertise are

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in demand across the world.

Despite these incentives, less than a quarter of UK businesses currently export.

Why is this?

A key finding from the Department for Business Innovation and Skills Small Business Survey is that there is a lack of confidence among SMEs about exporting. This seems to be based on perceptions around complexity, cost, legal and regulatory barriers

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INSIGHT

It’s designed to inspire SMEs to start planning for long term growth and consider export as one route to that growth

and a lack of easily available support.

But, on the positive side – this means there is huge potential to increase the number of exporters, by helping them overcome barriers and highlighting the support available.

To counter these issues, UKTI has launched a high-profile campaign to raise awareness of the benefits of exporting.

Exporting is GREAT is designed to: • inspire SMEs with an appetite for growth to consider exporting as part of their strategy; • reassure SMEs that exporting is no more risky or challenging than many other options they could consider; • promote the many sources of advice and support available to them.

Exporting is GREAT will drive home the message to business that the Government can provide support in guiding a business through its concerns and issues to develop its international trade potential and access overseas markets.

For SMEs which are already exporting, the campaign aims to encourage them to do more, such as considering new markets.

The campaign was piloted in the North of

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England, where there are around 600,000 businesses, many of which, it is reckoned, will be ready to export for the first time, or to build on the success they have already found.

The campaign, which builds on the Government’s GREAT brand, will run until June. It focuses on reaching businesses through advertising, direct marketing and digital media and PR activity. Its intention is to inspire SMEs with an appetite for growth and to consider exporting as part of their strategy for growth.

Exporting is GREAT complements the Business is GREAT campaign, which is designed to inspire SMEs to start planning for long term growth and consider export as one route to that growth.

The pilot coincided with UKTI’s second Export Week - focused on High Growth Markets with roadshows around the country where trade advisers offered face-to-face support to businesses.

This initiative comes after the Government committed an extra £70m a year for the next two years to expand the range of UKTI support available, including more international trade

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advisers, export vouchers to help businesses access UKTI services and additional support to help British firms showcase their goods and services at international trade shows.

Exporting is GREAT is a national, integrated marketing campaign that is aimed at almost 3 million individuals and 700,000 businesses with more than four employees, giving them a specific call to action - to contact UKTI to find out more about exporting.

It is intended to generate more than 3,000 appointments with UKTI International Trade Advisers, giving small businesses direct access to expert advice, support and finance to help them export. The campaign will cost £2.4m and aims to generate £1.2bn in export revenue from the leads it generates. The campaign creative features two small businesses which have grown their business internationally as a result of UKTI advice. n For more information on the Exporting is GREAT campaign, SMEs should go to www.greatbusiness.gov.uk/ukti or call 0800 093 2094.

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EVENTS

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EXPORTS EXPO

Businesses wanting to export or to increase their exports can get help and information through a major series of events over the summer UK Trade and Investment, UKTI, is taking part in the inaugural International Festival for Business, IFB. Billed as the UK’s most significant international trade and investment showcase since the 1951 Festival of Britain, and the largest global concentration of business events during 2014, it is being hosted in Liverpool but also incorporates B2B events across the wider North during June and July.

Prime Minister David Cameron said IFB “is

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going to be an event on an unprecedented scale... and a shop window like no other…”.

And Business Secretary Vince Cable said: “In the UK we are seeing encouraging signs of recovery in the economy but to ensure that it’s built on the right foundations, we need to boost exports. The International Festival for Business will be a catalyst for businesses large and small to accelerate their expansion plans and fulfil their trade ambitions.

“It is rare that an event of this magnitude is

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staged anywhere so I hope that businesses across the whole of the EU will seize this opportunity and use it to showcase their products and services to the rest of the world.”

Underpinned by a major cultural programme, the 50-day IFB will include more than 200 business-focused events and is expected to attract business delegates and trade intermediaries from more than 100 countries across the globe.

The aims are to drive UK economic growth,

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help double UK exports to £1trn by 2020, and generate more than £100m of foreign direct investment.

It will focus on creating new international and domestic business-to-business relationships and opportunities for UK companies of all sizes. The events programme is clustered around seven key themes and there is an open invitation to all types of individual businesses to get directly involved in the IFB to gain maximum benefit from it.

The programme will span all aspects of the seven broad IFB themes, and range from major international conventions, exhibitions and conferences, to product/process launches and demonstrations, masterclasses, seminars, and workshops, awards ceremonies, dinners, business breakfasts, and several meet the buyer events.

The events are all geared towards creating new contacts, knowledge and opportunities for commercial interaction, innovation and trade and most will be open to all potential delegates and can be booked via the IFB website. While the majority will be chargeable at standard commercial rates, there will also be a wide programme of free events and activities, mainly, but not exclusively, located in the IFB Hub. During the Festival delegates will have access to a range of services, facilities and business opportunities through the free IFB Business Club. Delegates can attend events, exchange new ideas, promote their products and seek new sources of finance.

The free Business Brokerage Services, offered as part of the Business Club, matches companies with potential customers, suppliers and investors.

The organisers are seeking to maximise opportunities for matching potential customers, suppliers and investors, both before and during the IFB. UKTI has packaged together a range of services to form an exclusive offer for IFB delegate companies, and SMEs in particular.

The main elements are: • A free export health check meeting with an export trade advisor • Free export market selection service – initial advice about where best to focus your export

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EVENTS

It is rare that an event of this magnitude is staged anywhere so I hope that businesses across the whole of the EU will seize this opportunity and use it to showcase their products and services to the rest of the world

efforts, by matching information about your products and services with on the ground intelligence about likely demand in individual countries worldwide • Free registration to export business opportunities service – market intelligence from British Embassies and UKTI outposts around the world about live commercial leads in the respective local market area • Free general and specific themed masterclasses to help develop export business • Discounted Overseas Market Intelligence Service, OMIS - detailed research reports into suitable target markets and how best to access them • Subsidised involvement in international trade missions and exhibitions • IFB SME export awards: £10,000/£5,000/£3,000 export voucher prizes for winners and runners-up in categories such as best export strategy and best export product/service.

As part of the Festival, UKTI will present a Benelux Day on Thursday 19 June which will showcase priority investment sectors in the UK for Benelux companies and business opportunities for British companies in the Benelux region.

The Benelux is one of the most dynamic export markets for British goods and services.

Home to a large number of successful UK businesses, it is also the UK’s second largest export market. The two biggest seaports in Europe, Rotterdam and Antwerp, less than 60 miles apart, make up the world’s largest

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petrochemical processing centre.

The Benelux Day will look at how this region presents a strategic gateway to mainland Europe and an ideal market for UK companies of all sizes. A series of presentations from business leaders with connections to the region will start the day and throughout the afternoon visitors will have the opportunity to attend a number of breakout seminars and workshops, looking at four main sectors: • eCommerce • Food • Government procurement • Offshore wind There will also be the opportunity for companies to schedule one-to-one meetings with UKTI advisors to discuss their international aspirations and discover how they can make the next step into the Benelux market.

Ian McCarthy, director of IFB 2014, said: “Europe remains the UK’s key export market and it is vital that the whole of the continent and the Benelux countries take part. As the name suggests it is an international festival and every single one of the events would be useful to EU businesses.

“We live in a truly international economy.

At its core IFB 2014 provides an unprecedented international business networking opportunity.”

In September UKTI will also host a similar event in the North East for regional businesses interested in partnering or trading within Benelux countries.. n

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INTERVIEW

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Maralyn O’Keefe’s first contact with Nigeria was when Dr Steven Fagbemi, the chaplain of the University of Sunderland, phoned her in February 2011. He asked if she was interested in a stained glass restoration project in a church in Nigeria and whether she would be willing to travel there.

Dr Fagbemi had heard of O’Keefe and her business from the University of Sunderland.

She was an Arts and Design graduate specialising in architectural glass who has run her own company - Maralyn O’Keefe Traditional Stained Glass - for 16 years in a studio above her gallery, The Glass & Art Gallery, in Consett, County Durham.

With her small team, which included her husband Ron, she did commissions from churches, schools, public buildings and private clients.

Many of her private commissions had been sent abroad and in 2000 she worked on a commission in a gallery in Las Palmas in Gran Canaria which Trade Partners UK helped find and fund.

But Nigeria was in a different league.

She recalls: “During those ten days before the meeting I looked on every website possible about Nigeria and read so many negative things and then again many positive things.

My mind was in an absolute turmoil as to whether I really wanted to be involved in

business in a country with known problems.

“I really was going into this possible business project blind to all that it could entail which was a worry. The morning of the meeting with the two priests, an artist friend was at my studio and I was saying I was very nervous about doing business in Nigeria. He said, ‘Maralyn, where is your sense of adventure?’. I decided then that I would go into the meeting with an open mind because the priests would surely not be putting me in any danger by inviting me to do business in their country.’’

A meeting with Dr Fagbemi and a visiting priest from Nigeria went well. She was shown photographs of some beautiful arts and crafts windows which – it slowly dawned on her – were not just for any church, the visiting priest from Nigeria was in fact the Provost of the Cathedral Church of Christ in the city of Lagos and it was the cathedral windows that he wanted restored to their former glory.

O’Keefe says: “Before I knew it, I was on my way to Lagos. This, my first trip, was for me to see the windows for myself and report on the work that would be necessary for their restoration. Before my arrival in Lagos I imagined life there wouldn’t be too far removed from other cities I had visited.

However it felt strange being in a beautiful top class hotel within its own guarded compound, the same with the guarded wall and gates

around the cathedral and being plunged frequently into darkness as the electricity system failed.’’

On her return to the UK she set about completing her report on the windows which had never been maintained from when the oldest was installed about 145 years ago - outlining her restoration suggestions, recommendations, terms and conditions and proposed plan of action.

The result was that most of the windows came to Consett to be worked on and the others were restored in situ.

“Removing the stained glass from their apertures was an unknown feat and had to be supervised, and then strong, padded crates were built to protect them, valuations of the stained glass for insurance, freight companies contacted, etc., etc.,’’ says O’Keefe.

In May 2012 she travelled with her three assistants to work in the cathedral for three weeks on the first phase of the project.

She says: “Our first window was the East window, with the top about 45ft high and 20ft wide. I told myself, if we can do this one we can do the others. This thought was purely based on the quality of scaffolding that was put up for us. Not a board or safety harness in sight. Two days of negotiation with the scaffolding company and we had some palm wood boards and two safety harnesses.’’

Maralyn O’Keefe was initially in two minds about what was to be her greatest export triumph, as she explains to Peter Jackson

WINDOWS TO THE WORLD SPECIAL REPORT | SPRING 14

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The windows that came to Consett were worked on by her and her team for about five months and then they were told they had to be back in Nigeria within six months of their arrival otherwise huge tax penalties would be incurred. However, the finished windows left the studio with days to spare.

She has since had three subsequent visits to Lagos mainly to train a glazing company in the removal and re-installation of restored stained glass.

She says: “The cathedral, as a company to deal with, has been amazing by not only looking after me and my team of workers admirably

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during our visits but they have also made payment in advance of each of the phases of the project being worked on. I wish all my UK customers paid us equally promptly.

“Preparing for each visit has been different each time as the visa application has varied every time. On my last visit in February it took three months to get a visa issued because of a total change of procedure. It was extremely frustrating trying to work my business around a daily wait for a visa and trip to Nigeria. But my spirits were lifted when Ian Howard from UKTI North East visited me at my studio in January and hours later he was in touch with

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INTERVIEW

the British High Commission in Lagos. Within days, with both the Provost of the cathedral’s contacts and the British High Commission in Lagos my passport was issued with the appropriate visa and I was ready to travel.

“Whilst on my last trip to Lagos I met Peter Carter, the Deputy British High Commissioner in Lagos and Glory Eze, the senior export manager as they came to the cathedral to see the completely restored stained glass. They, along with Ian Howard, have told me that they will give me any assistance I need for any future projects in Nigeria. It is a shame I did not realise the advice that is available

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INTERVIEW

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through UKTI in 2011 when I was invited to Lagos as no doubt it would have saved me and others a lot of headaches.’’

O’Keefe will be working with the cathedral for some time to come as she has been commissioned to design and make new stained glass windows. She has also been contacted by other churches in Lagos interested in her company working on their windows.

To assist her in Nigeria, she will be training, in the UK, the managing director of the church glazing company who, with his team, had worked with her on the installation of the restored windows. As well as taking on the more complex stained glass work with him as their man in Lagos, O’Keefe’s team will be also be exporting all necessary materials to his company for future commissions in Nigeria.

“Getting to odds with bureaucracy and other issues on this Nigerian project has been a huge and very difficult learning curve,’’ she says. “Now I know of the help and advice that UKTI can give a company, even as small as ours, I would have absolutely no hesitation in contacting them from the onset of every export project that I will undertake in the future.’’ n

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I told myself, if we can do this one we can do the others. This thought was purely based on the quality of scaffolding that was put up for us.

Not a board or safety harness in sight

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EXPORTING FOR GROWTH

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XXXXXXXX Export Week SPRING 14

7-11 April 2014

Grow your Business Throughout this week UKTI North East will work with many of the regions business support networks and initiatives to help you understand the wealth of support and knowledge here in the region to grow your business MONDAY 7TH APRIL International Trade is Key to Growth GT Engineering, Traynor Way, Whitehouse Business Park, Peterlee, Durham. SR8 2RU 12.00 Registration with Networking Lunch 12.45 Introduction from Graham Robb, Chair of the Institute of Directors, Durham committee 12.50 Britain Open for Business: The Next Phase. The Government has a longterm economic plan for Britain – and success in international markets is right at the heart of it. Plus hear about the other events taking place across Export Week – Growing your Business.

13.00 Case Study - TTE Technical Training Group is the UK's leading provider of technical training to the oil & gas, process, manufacturing and engineering sectors. Hear how they deliver the skills to meet employer needs, apprenticeship programmes, consultancy, tailored and off-the-shelf courses and the design and build of new training centres around the world.

13.15 Case Study - The GT Group is an international organisation with over 35 years of commitment to excellence in engineering design and manufacturing, exporting products and services to more than 60 countries throughout the world.

13.30 Panel discussion 14.00 Close. Factory tour for interested parties TUESDAY 8TH APRIL Growing your Business - How Government Funded Programmes can help This event, at Newcastle Gateshead Marriott Hotel MetroCentre Gateshead, will outline the North East Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) strategy for business growth.

09.00 09.30 09.40 10.00 10.30 11.00 12.00

support from UK Export Finance and the support available for SMEs to develop international Trade ‘within’ markets around the world.

08.30 Registration & Breakfast 09.00 Introduction to the MSB programme & Fujifilm Diosynth Biotechnologies Case Study 09.30 Funding Capital Investment 09.45 UK Export Finance, the UK’s export credit agency, helping exporters and investors by providing credit insurance policies, political risk insurance on overseas investments and guarantees on bank loans 10.00 Foreign Direct Investment 10.15 Panel Q&A 10.30 Refreshments & Networking & Site Tour 11.30 Close THURSDAY 10TH APRIL Regional Networks - Your Gateway to the World This event, at The Wynyard Rooms, will map out the region’s strong sector links and then demonstrate how North East companies can utilise these relationships to develop international trade.

08.30 09.00 09.10 09.30 10.00 10.20 10.30 11.30

Registration and Breakfast Introduction International Trade through Sector Organisation – The Multiplier Effect Case Study The Region’s International Links & Market Visits Support for International Trade Meet the Sector Organisations & Networking and refreshments Close

FRIDAY 11TH APRIL Growing your Business in the Tees Valley and how Government Funded Programmes can help This event, at The Wynyard Rooms, will outline the Tees Valley LEP Strategic Economic Plan and the various Department for Business, Innovation & Skills (BIS) funded programmes to support available for North East companies:

Registration and Breakfast Introduction NE LEP Strategy for Business Growth BIS Programs to Help Grow your Business Case Study Meet the Programmes, Networking & Lunch Close

WEDNESDAY 9TH APRIL Tailor Made Support for Mid Sized Businesses Belasis Avenue, Billingham, TS23 1LH, United Kingdom This event will introduce the UKTI MSB program and cover key business issues such as raising finance to fund capital investment, de-risking foreign trade through

09.00 09.30 09.40 10.15 10.45 12.00

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Registration and Refreshments Introduction Tees Valley LEP Strategic Economic Plan & the Tees Valley Growth Hub Case Study Meet the Programmes, Networking & Light Lunch Close

For further information visit www.gov.uk/ukti or email enquiries@uktinortheast.org.uk SPECIAL REPORT | SPRING 14

EXPORTING FOR GROWTH