Handel Export client  CKOS Kitchens has recently won significant new business and has just appointed 5 new wholesalers in the Danish market to sell their wide range of kitchens. CKOS Kitchens, established just over a year ago, specialises in bespoke kitchens to the wholesale market. Their main customer base is on the UK mainland where they have already secured over 100 wholesalers in their first year of trading.

The young company is highly ambitious and after having established its products and distribution network in the mainland UK market, decided that it wanted to start looking at the potential in export markets.” Initial research which we carried out indicated that Denmark could be a strong possible market for our kitchens” says Shaun O’Boyle, one of the company Directors. “We looked at the style of kitchens that consumers in Denmark tended to buy and knew that we could supply these particular styles and additionally give Danish consumers a wider choice and better service. Denmark is an affluent market and seemed to be weathering the economic downturn somewhat better than other markets, so we thought that as an initial export venture, it could give us good return on investment”.

Training and Advice for Exporting

In order to take the export venture forward the company enlisted the services of Handel Export Consulting through Invest NI’s Developing Export Sales Strategy (DESS) Programme. Handel Export is a Belfast based export consultancy company which specialises in assisting companies to do business in overseas markets. Suzanne Hill, Director of Handel Export has 15 year’s experience working in Export Sales and Marketing, previously for 2 of Northern Ireland’s premier exporting companies, Randox Laboratories Ltd and Brett Martin Ltd., before establishing Handel Export 7 years ago. During this time she has worked on the ground in 55 world markets and speaks 6 languages.

Suzanne Hill, Handel Export and Michelle Bloomfield, CKOS Kitchens

 “We have been delighted with the specialist export training and advice we have received from Handel Export Consulting, which has been instrumental in helping us to gain a foothold and good understanding of the Danish market” says Michelle Bloomfield, Export Sales Manager with CKOS Kitchens.  “We contracted Suzanne Hill from Handel Export for 5 days to help us to plan how to go about developing the Danish market. We wanted to travel out to Denmark to meet with potential wholesalers and Suzanne was able to clearly explain in practical terms exactly what we needed to do to ensure that our visit would be a success. Suzanne has a good knowledge and understanding of the Danish market, what the expectations of buyers there would be and how business negotiations are carried out. This knowledge was invaluable to us when we went out to the market as we knew what to expect and were much better prepared to deal with different scenarios as they arose. Different areas that we worked on were sales and cultural training, meeting preparation, putting together a sharp and convincing company presentation, follow-up and a sales and marketing strategy”.

Cultural Awareness

Suzanne Hill explains, “CKOS Kitchens is an excellent example of a company that has been very successful despite the economic downturn. There are a number of reasons for this, but I think the over-riding one is that they are a very sales focussed organisation. The company employs 12 people, 5 of whom work exclusively in a sales role. There were already strong sales skills within the company, these just needed adapted and adjusted for the Danish market where business negotiations are carried out differently. Cultural, social and business customs vary between markets and they all need to be respected; this requires patience and a level of understanding from the company wishing to export. Lack of cultural awareness can be detrimental to the success of a company’s position in the export market. We also worked on putting together a sales and marketing strategy to take the company through the different stages of export development, preparation before the market visit, meeting with potential clients in Denmark and then following up the contacts and seeing them through to contract stage. Making sure that the company was well prepared in advance of their market visit was key to shortening the sales cycle and ensuring that the company achieved rapid results”.

Michelle, CKOS Kitchens says, “Taking advice from the professionals has definitely paid dividends. Exporting is an expensive venture and as a small company we do not have huge resources to spend on making costly mistakes. Working with Handel Export made sure that we avoided some of the common pitfalls that new exporters may face, allowed us to maximise our return on investment and fast-tracked our entry into the Danish market. Without this assistance it would have taken us much longer to get contracts and sales from the market. Handel Export has enabled us to fast-track into one market and we now have confidence to approach new markets with the training we have received”.

The Future for CKOS Kitchens

Not only have Handel Export improved sales techniques for CKOS in export markets, the two companies are now working together to consolidate business in the UK and CKOS are more confident with their new approach. In recent weeks, CKOS have also visited Holland and have just secured new contracts in this market.

For more information on services from Handel Export, contact info@handelexport.com or call +44 (0)28 9092 3378