Exporting the Midlands in a post-Brexit world

Will Bown, Laura Clarke, Guy McEvoy, Shehzad Chaudhary

The UK has been looking to reshape its trading relationship with the world in recent years. Whether driven by necessity or the chances created by a new vision, businesses from across the Midlands are well-placed to make an impact on the global stage.

Our managing director Alex Turner discussed with a panel of experts how the Midlands is exporting in a post-Brexit world.

Are you looking to grow at the moment into international markets or just looking to consolidate what you have?

Laura Clarke, Director, Chilwell Products

“We have quite a lot of return business anyway. It’s just ensuring that our lead times remain unaffected. Lead times for us is one of the biggest things and we’ve invested in new machinery. So we’ve got the additional capacity and we’re able to do things quickly.

“It will be the challenges with transport and external factors that we can’t control. We have tried to put ourselves in the best position possible to obviously navigate through it. I think, in some ways, having had the pandemic and obviously, now we’re looking at the war, people are almost used to uncertainty and used to challenges which is actually quite a good thing.”

Where do you see the hotspots for UK businesses?

Shehzad Chaudhary, Midlands Deputy Director, DIT

“The key focus for us is agri-food and drink that is particularly strong in certainly in the East Midlands and financial professional services. Birmingham is quickly becoming home to booming sectors, such as creative industries, education, tech and digital consumer figures and clean growth.

“The government’s never had more of a focus on place-based approach now with levelling up and putting that extra support in so we’re working across with our counterparts.

“When negotiating free trade agreements based on the feedback for businesses like from the panel today we need to negotiate across those issues that you’re facing. Sometimes these are regulatory, or things such as shipping tariffs.

“It’s really about listening to businesses at this stage in terms of what they’re experiencing with markets.”

What have you learnt from your experiences?

Guy McEvoy, CEO & Founder, GuyKat

“I think there’s a low barrier to entry if you have digital or professional services and products, because those you know, the bureaucracy associated with shipping finished goods isn’t something I have to worry about.

“Technology has allowed us to deal with customer inquiries from literally anywhere on the planet. We have done obscure places like Chile. To do business effortlessly with Mexico or Australia wouldn’t have seemed possible 10 years ago.

“You shouldn’t believe if you’re in professional services, or in digital, that there are enormous barriers to stopping you’re entering the thing when my mindset changed from that, that transformed our business.”

What are some of the things that you would highlight to a first-time exporter?

William Brown, MD, SuperFOIL Insulation

“To know your terms would be one of the most important ones. We work with a few corporates and they wanted it done in a very specific way. When we went and made that first transition, I think we got £16k of that. We paid and then they paid and it was all up in the air trying to get that deal which probably took a year to take effect.

“Also getting everything as straight as you can. We’ve worked with the local Chamber of Commerce, and they’ve provided loads of different trading resources and courses. They’ve been really helpful to get our team to that point where they’re more like experts in shipping.”

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