"Business must export to survive"

IN 2011, York embarked upon a challenge to get 15 per cent of its businesses exporting by the end of 2015. At the time only five per cent of firms had ventured into overseas markets.

The target was set in City of York Council’s economic strategy, alongside an ambition to be a Top Five UK city and a Top Ten European City.

As part of its bid to get the city exporting, the council invited the private sector to join it in setting up York Export Forum, bringing together those that have successfully traded offshore and those that are looking to.

Speaking about the progress made since the strategy got under way in 2011, Katie Stewart, head of economic development at the council, said: “We are maximising the potential of what the businesses in the city have to offer.

“The economic strategy was very ambitious and we have made some successes. We are currently ranked the sixth city in the UK coming up from 13th in 2001. In Europe we are the ninth, so we have obviously made some progress.

“We set out to be more enterprising and international. Some things worked well and some things haven’t.

“The export forum has taught us that the public sector has no place telling businesses how to export, but the private sector does. That peer-to-peer support has to be at the heart of the export forum.

“We as a city council have made attempts to make more formal alliances with countries across the world to help business in York.

“We have made some good links with China, the Middle East and America. We have had some business take advantage of this, and have seen some inward investment.”

Mrs Stewart was speaking at the We Are International event organised by business group York Professionals in a bid to encourage the city’s professional services sector to think about looking overseas for business.

Held at the National Railway Museum, the event featured a panel of speakers who had experience in exporting, including David Dickson, of Garbutt & Elliott accountants in York, which has its own China Desk to attract clients from the Far East. Also speaking was Victoria Tomlinson who took her communications business Northern Lights PR to Dubai, Brian De Vere who chairs the York Export Forum, and Amanda Selvaratnam, head of corporate training at the University of York.

Rachel Goddard, chairwoman of York Professionals and managing director of Intandem Communications, said: “The quality of the British legal, professional and financial services is highly valued around the world and so as Britiish-based professionals we have a huge opportunity to export.

“Quality professional services are expected to be in high demand, particularly in emerging markets, in the next decade.

“Being based in York is even more of an advantage as the city has such a high international profile which gives us a great a platform from which to promote our skills and services.”

One such example of a business exporting its professional services is York-based DWA Architects which won an international competition to design a new elderly person care and assisted living project for 1,024 residents in the Guangdong Province of China, and has recently won a contract to design a new care village for the elderly near Moscow, which will be the first of its kind in Russia.

Mel Fairbourn-Varley, director of International Projects at DWA Architects, which is based in St Mary’s Court, said: “We are penetrating those two markets in China and Russia, and have also done an enormous amount of research in the Middle East; in the UAE, Qatar and Egypt. We are making bigger inroads than we have ever made there.

“We haven’t really penetrated the European market, largely because of the economic crisis, but that will probably change.

“We specialise in post-hospital care and are known in the UK for our expertise, particularly in elderly care architecture.

“We expanded through the 1990’s and 2000’s largely because of the huge growth in that market, but we got to the point where we were knocking on the same doors in that market. We then took the decision to look at the international markets for our future growth.

“The recession came along and focussed our minds even more on the international markets to give us more future stability to ride out the sore tooth of the UK economy.”

Mr Fairbourn-Varley said the key to breaking into new global markets is to “do research properly and hold your nerve”.

He said: “You have got to understand the culture you are dealing with, business takes longer and it takes longer to procure until you get the foot in the door.

“I have become more convinced that British businesses should export as a necessity. We have to export more and even small businesses need to look at exporting to insure against the future of the business. Whether you are offering services or goods the key to future growth is exporting.”

Surrounding York is a number of manufacturing firms that have successfully broken into overseas markets and gone on to become global leaders in their fields.

One example was the winner of last year’s Press Business Awards Dare to Export category – Sheppee International.

The Elvington-based manufacturer, whose machinery is used by glass bottle producers around the world, also took the title of Large Business of the Year and the Dare to Export crown.

Following a management buyout in the summer of 2008, the business was hit hard by the recession and soon found itself on the brink of going under. However as the European market dwindled, Sheppee refused to accept the decline in trade. After months of no orders the directors literally packed their backpacks and went to find prospective customers in the wider world.

Sheppee International, which supplies innovative machinery for the glass container industry, now exports 95 per cent of its turnover, which last year was £8.5 million, around the globe.

Prior to winning the awards the company had set up an office in China to take advantage of the expanding markets in China, Indonesia and Thailand.

Sheppee had also begun supplying the Australian market and, following on from the Press Business Awards 2013, has now made advances in the US Market.

Giving advice to any business looking to export, Sheppee’s managing director Jon Wilson said: “It’s a case of doing your homework, persevering, and utilising any contacts you have.

“Attend exhibitions and trade shows that reach out into the area you want to get in to. Getting hold of a good agent or distributor can also help.”

Leading the field in securing electrical cables is Rillington-based cable cleat manufacturer Ellis.

Around half of Ellis’ annual turnover of £7 million is generated through export sales, a percentage that has grown significantly in the last decade.

The company now has a network of specialist distributors in 27 different countries and a sales record that has seen its products installed in some of the biggest construction projects on the planet.

Recent export projects include The Shamiya Haram in Mecca, which is a project to expand the holy mosque that will see its capacity increased to 2.25million worshippers, and the Areva European Pressurised Reactor (EPR) nuclear power plant, in Guangdong province, China.

Speaking about the challenges of exporting, Richard Shaw, managing director of Ellis, said: “The biggest issues when exporting are geographical and cultural.

“Put simply, we are based in North Yorkshire and are aiming to secure specifications for our products in places as far afield as Brazil, China, Australia and Kazakhstan.

“To do this without local support in these, and other, countries would be nigh on impossible. We are geographically remote and no matter how much research we put into the different export markets our knowledge of local culture and custom will always be limited, leaving us very much on the outside looking in. We overcome these problems by opting to identify and appoint local distributors in all of our target export markets and therefore remove in one step the geographical and cultural boundaries we faced – and this is something I would urge any businesses considering export to do.

“ A local distributor provides a solid foothold in a new market and is invaluable in establishing brand and products, while providing the kind of sales development that wouldn’t be possible if you were to try it using a UK-based team.

“It’s worth remembering the transition to a new export market can take some time, and creating a regular flow of business does take time. By and large we look at around three years.”