Kudos cleans up in Dubai

A CUMBRIAN shower firm is looking to clean up in the Middle East after winning a six-figure order in the Dubai.

Holme-based Kudos Shower Products was set up in 2001 and has a turnover of more than £10m.  After deciding to launch the products on the international market, Kudos, which employs 84 people, enrolled on the UK Trade & Investment’s passport to export programme.

Managing director Jim Watson attended a UKTI supported trade mission in Dubai and also commissioned an overseas market introduction service (OMIS) report.
Through the OMIS he then found an agent and distributor who was able to place Kudos products in showrooms across the United Arab Emirates.

Jim says: “”We found the Passport to Export programme excellent in all respects and would recommend them unreservedly to other businesses hoping to trade overseas.

“If you are relatively new to exporting, the Passport service offers a very good overall grounding, and then the OMIS service was really good value for money – the level of information, and the quality of the contacts we were given were fantastic.”

After meeting 20 potential partners and eventually finding the right agent, Jim and the team still found they had to put in a great deal of work to get orders.

Kudos representatives travel to the Emirates every couple of months to maintain contacts and make sure their products are in the right showrooms, but their hard work and determination are now starting to pay off and orders are flooding in – the latest one being a £110,000 order from Dubai.

The company has since commissioned two more OMIS reports – one on Russia, and one on Australia, and will be using UKTI’s services to identify the correct business partners and sort out license agreements.