Red tape wrangles for Albert

Jul 15 2008 by Gloria McShane, Evening Gazette

ALBERT PATTISON won’t be complaining about red tape in the UK - not compared with what he believes are onerous Indian trading regulations.

Mr Pattison, pictured, is managing director of Hart Biologicals, a Hartlepool company which makes diagnostic products for use in pathology laboratories.

The company was founded in 2003 and has eight staff. It exports to the US, Australia and many European nations and its sales abroad have leaped from 1% of turnover five years ago to 31% today.

“We’re dead keen to work with India,” he says, “but the product registration in the medical field is a laborious process.”

Dotting every “i” and crossing every “t” are crucial, he says, and the process for his firm has involved the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, a notary public and a lot of time - for what so far have been fairly small orders.

Although the American Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is known to be strict on product rules, in his experience it has nothing on India, he adds.

In contrast to his Indian government woes, Mr Pattison has a very good working relationship with his clients, who are in the tourist honey pot of Goa. Although he has not been to India, he links up with them at the huge medical trade fair in Dusseldorf, Germany each November.

He remains hopeful of an eventual relaxation in the rules. In the meantime he says it’s “critical” that novice exporters contact UK Trade & Investment advisers before they going into foreign markets.