Every firm should have an export strategy. It ought to be as mandatory as an HR or fire safety policy. Shareholders should berate executives who steer clear of exporting. They should harangue them and, if they don't change their ways, fire them. No excuses are valid.
“You have to be big to export” is instantly disprovable. As some wonderful British firms are proving, it is feasible for small, but ambitious, firms to go global.
Texane makes wheels that drive many of the world's subway and airport escalators and travelators. After a few years of selling direct to the US and France, managing director Arnab Dutt switched strategy and went in search of local distributors.
“If you’re a UK-based industrial products company, it is certainly possible to export from the UK without overseas representation or branches, but I would suggest it’s a lot easier if you have an agent or a distributor because they know the local market and have the contacts,” says Mr Dutt.
“Overseas offices and staff are a major investment. I don’t believe it makes sense to set up an office in another country until you have reached the point where the economies of scale kick in, when a market accounts for a third of your sales and there is growth of 25 per cent a year, for example.”
To read the full article on the Raconteur, a supplement in The Times, click here.
