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E-Tech wins North West exporter award
E-Tech Components, of Merseyside, winner of the North West Passport to Export Award 2010 organised by UK Trade & Investment (UKTI). Chris Montgomery MD, (2nd left) with directors Paul Forester and Alison Doubleday, collect the award from Lucy Meacock, guest speaker and ITV newsreader. With them are Brian Shaw, (left) MD UK Trade and Investment Group, and UKTI Regional Director Clive Drinkwater, (right) at the awards ceremony held at Knowsley Hall.
MERSEYSIDE COMPANY CELEBRATES PASSPORT TO EXPORT SUCCESS
E-Tech Components, a Wilson Henry client and the cable accessories manufacturer, has won the prestigious North West Passport to Export Award 2010, organised by UK Trade & Investment (UKTI).
The Liverpool-based cable accessories manufacturer took just three years to turn its business from an exclusively UK concern into a global success. E-Tech has a turnover of £1.2 million and overseas trade makes up half of its current sales. The success has seen the business take on two full time employees safeguarded it against falling demand in the home market.
It is now in markets including Oman, Qatar, Kuwait, Malaysia, Singapore, Korea and the USA and are becoming important international suppliers in the rail, oil and gas and windfarm industries, with plenty of potential to expand.
Managing Director Chris Montgomery said he was thrilled with the victory:
“Until 2006 overseas trade was a low priority for us. We were not really aware of our export potential, and when our website generated queries from the Middle East it took us a while to take them seriously.”
It was the first order from Dubai which forced Chris to take exporting more seriously, and so he contacted UKTI and signed up for Passport to Export, UKTI’s flagship scheme for new and inexperienced exporters. It provides companies with training, advice and ongoing support to allow them to compete in new markets.
It helped E-Tech internationalise its website and made the company even more visible to overseas customers which in turn led to an increase in queries from around the world. That led to orders from Bombadier in India, one of the largest train manufacturers in the world. UKTI is now assisting E-Tech to set up a joint venture with the company, and is due to visit India soon to further the project.
Passport to Export funding also allowed Chris to join a trade mission to the Middle East Electricity Exhibition in Dubai where he met buyers from across the Gulf. On his return to Merseyside he already had a £26,000 order from a customer in Oman, who still trades with E-Tech to this day.
Chris said: “Attending the Middle East Electricity exhibition with UKTI took us on to another level. Without UKTI we would not have considered going - the costs would have been prohibitive for a speculative trip. But that initial visit was the start of a big breakthrough for us. UKTI made it possible to take the risk.”
E-Tech now supplies components for Dubai’s new Metro Rail system and hopes that will lead to more big opportunities as the planned Saudi rail system nears development.
Chris added: “We have found UKTI’s services, and the advice of our International Trade Adviser Sandra Thornber to be invaluable. UKTI have introduced us to plenty of new opportunities and offered assistance with all aspects of international trade, and we will continue to work with them to grow our business overseas. Three years ago I could not have imagined a situation where exports made up 50% of our turnover – now I can see our international business growing even more, and am extremely glad we made the decision to look overseas.”
Clive Drinkwater, UKTI’s International Trade Director for the North West, added:
“E-Tech Components are not the first company to have ignored overseas orders – the prospect can be daunting. But Chris did exactly the right thing by taking on the challenge and talking to UKTI about his options. Now the company is reaping the rewards and finding that, as its profile rises, yet more deals are being generated.
“The Passport to Export programme has been helping companies trade with confidence since 2002, and in the North West some 1,900 companies have taken up the programme and over 1,100 companies have completed it.
“Many of these companies are continuing to work with UKTI to support their international trade activity and take it to even higher levels, and 79% of North West companies on Passport have improved their business performance this year, with 89% of participants reporting that they are happy with the range of support offered by Passport to Export.
“Trading in international markets is key to business success and research shows that exporters have higher levels of productivity, employment and investment than non-exporters. UKTI’s Passport to Export Programme can really help put North West businesses on the road to overseas success and we would encourage other Merseyside companies thinking of exporting to contact us and see how we can help.”
