Firms broaden their horizons

Oct 15 2009 By David Coppock, The Journal

NORTH EAST firms have been broadening their horizons in a bid to win overseas business with the help of a new £1m programme.

Horizons, a joint initiative from UK Trade & Investment (UKTI), One North East (ONE) and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) 2007-13, was launched in July to help companies keen to target high-growth overseas markets.

The programme has excited considerable interest with around 50 companies registering their interest to sign up for the initiative.

Through Horizons, each company is assigned an international trade adviser, who works closely with the firm to develop an export plan to tackle its target market.

They then put their plan into action and receive grant funding to support a range of activities such as participating in exhibitions and trade fairs, translation and language services and export skills development training. Some may also benefit from assistance to help ensure their products comply with the standards required by their particular target market.

Horizons is a valuable addition to our existing wide range of services, which also includes the new national Gateway to Global Growth initiative, that was launched earlier this year and focuses on the needs of innovative companies that already have several years export experience to help them access new markets.

There’s no doubt that the economic downturn has had a significant impact on the North East economy and exports have fallen in recent months, but the region still exported more than £10bn worth of goods last year and was the only English region with a positive balance of trade.

There has also been impressive growth in several key sectors and markets and yet the actual number of companies that export is small and most of our export earnings come from relatively few industries.

We want to encourage more companies to take up the export challenge, widen the range of goods and services that are exported and broaden the number of markets in which they are involved.

Working together with our partners we’re helping more and more companies through initiatives such as Horizons as they endeavour to navigate out of the downturn by seeking new business opportunities overseas.

Research has shown that companies that export are more resilient and we’re here to help companies find the markets that can make the difference.

The Horizons initiative is now closed to new applications but for more information about other support services available through UK Trade & Investment contact the North East International Trade Hotline on 0845 05 05 054 or e-mail enquiries@ukti.rito.co.uk

David Coppock is international trade director, UK Trade & Investment