High Growth Markets: Focus on growth within your sector

YORKSHIRE businesses should focus on markets demonstrating growth within their sector, according to leading business figures.

Businesses from across the region, which are trading successfully across several continents, said choosing new markets to explore depends on what your company’s goal is. The comments were made at a Round Table event held by TheBusinessDesk.com. The full report is included in our High Growth Markets Supplement.

Mark Robson of the UKTI said the majority of businesses will always go to close markets first and then start to think about the opportunities in high growth markets.

He highlighted that the important thing to look for is not just growth in the overall economy, but growth within your sector.

He said: “It depends on the nature of the product. There are a lot of people getting pretty rich in India and China, so if you are selling high value consumer goods, China is a good place but there are not many petrol stations there yet. Our message with the BRICs (Brazil, Russia, India and China) is don’t ignore them.”

Debbie Mullen, co-head of Yorkshire and Lincolnshire for Barclays said it is important to get more businesses thinking about their export and country strategies in the longer term. 

She said: “The middle class in China is 174 million people at the moment but in the next five years, that will grow to 340 million – that increase will be more than the population of the US.”

Richard Williams, international and corporate tax partner at Deloitte’s Leeds office said that companies selling consumer brands should be prepared to sell slightly lower than their home market position, so as people’s spending ability goes up they will stick with that brand.

The business figures emphasised that there are plenty of opportunities for Yorkshire businesses but there is also a need to tread carefully; local bureaucracy, changing tax regimes and political instability highlight the need to work with trusted partners who have specific experience in that market. But for those businesses confident enough to start exporting to new markets the rewards can be immense.