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

Markets in Central Europe

Map of Poland

This week Handel Export is officially launching a new trade development programme to Poland in cooperation with our partners, the Northern Ireland Chamber of Commerce and Invest NI. The purpose of the project is to enable Northern Irish companies to gain fast-track access to contacts and business opportunities in the Polish market and to build trading relationships with their Polish counterparts. The Trade development Programme encompasses a market visit to Warsaw which will take place from the 26th – 30th October 2009.

 This project will be the 7th such venture that Handel Export and the Northern Ireland Chamber of Commerce have carried out to Poland in the last several years. Numerous Northern Irish companies have participated, this has facilitated trading relations with Polish partners. Many Northern Ireland companies have established offices in Poland, sourced Polish suppliers, established distribution networks for their products and services and established strategic alliances with Polish partners.

There are many opportunities in the Polish market for goods and services across a wide range of business sectors. Poland is one of the few countries in the EU to maintain a rate of positive economic growth despite the downturn. In the first quarter of 2009 Poland’s economic growth rate was 0.8% and is anticipated to be 2% next year.

Handel Export provides the following services to participating companies:

• Market research on industry background and potential business partners
• Short listing of relevant contacts
• Setting up a detailed itinerary of meetings with appropriate contacts in Poland (each company has their own itinerary of companies to meet with during the market visit)
• Translation of the company profile into Polish
• Company profile in Polish posted on the project website www.getworkeu.com
• Training workshop (1/2 day) on how to develop successful business in Poland
• Pre-market visit briefing
• In-market publicity with relevant Trade Associations, business partners etc.
• Assistance with follow-up after the market visit

The cost of participation on the programme and the assistance package is £800 plus VAT. Travel costs are additional but also benefit from grant assistance from Invest NI – 50% of flight costs plus £100 per night for hotel costs. Places on the programme are limited to 10 companies.

For an application form contact us at info(at)handelexport.com or by telephone: 028 9092 3378.

Read what our clients have said about our services in our Testimonials Section

Warsaw old town

The Ireland Poland Business Association (IPBA)is a well-established bilateral trade association whose main objective is to promote trade and business relations between the island of Ireland and Poland. At the invitation of the Honorary Consul for Poland in Northern Ireland, the IBPA has decided to form a branch in Northern Ireland.

The launch of this association will take place on Friday 5th June 2009 at 12.00 noon at the Canal Court Hotel, Merchant’s Quay, Newry. A light lunch will be served at 1.15pm. The event will give participants an overview of the many opportunities available to companies looking for new markets or to grow existing business interests in Poland. Speakers at the event will outline the business opportunities in the Polish market, as well as the benefits of membership of the Northern Ireland Poland Business Association.

Topics and speakers are as follows:

Opening address: Seamus McCaffrey, Chairman, Ireland Poland Business Association

Poland – an overview of the current economic climate: Jerzy Bartosik, 1st Counsellor (Commercial), Embassy of Poland in Dublin

Overview and benefits of the IPBA: Seamus McCaffrey

Practical experience of doing business in Poland: Eamonn Crowley, AIB CEE Division & Matthew Creagh, CQS Chartered Surveyors

Northern Ireland & Poland: an overview: Jerome Mullen, Honorary Consul for Poland in Northern Ireland

R.S.V.P. Tess Byrne: admin@irelandpoland.com or +353 87 317 1960.

Part 2: Failure to carry out sufficient or appropriate market research

Carrying out good market research prior to entering a new market is vital for a number of reasons, not least for saving you time and money through making sure you get it right first time.

The more information you have on your target market, the better your ability to make informed decisions on the best strategy for business development. This is particularly important for SMEs where they may have very limited resources to develop their export activities. Many companies will approach new markets in an ad hoc way, especially in SMEs where the owner / manager is the key person looking after export development as well as one hundred other things! Sometimes they do not see the merit in spending time on market research, although this is ultimately short-sighted – although market research is time consuming, it is one of the most effective ways of saving you money in the long term.

Detailed information is required on your competitors, the structure of the market, who your potential customers are, what the market size is, what the product and service requirements are, and relevant legislation in the market. Other general information is also important such as background on the politics and economics of the country, and one of the most important things of all – finding out about the culture of the country and how business is conducted there.

The most successful exporters and export sales people we know are those who make an effort to find out as much as possible about the market they are doing business with, not just in advance of their first market visit, but also during their market visit. Showing an interest in the market and people you are doing business with goes a long way to establishing successful business relationships. Spending extra time in the market, going early and spending the weekend there to get a feel for the country can really help you to understand how the market ticks, what will work and what will not work in terms of sales and marketing.

Handel Export offers a market research service to exporters, to provide them with key market information to enable the company to make the right decisions about how to approach a new market, without burdening them with reams of information that reduces their will to live! Contact us for more information on our services.

Having worked with several hundred exporters, assisting them to successfully export to new markets, Handel Export has come up with a series of what we perceive to be the most common exporter mistakes and tips on how to avoid these. We will profile these in our next blogs over the following days and weeks.

Part 1: Failure to develop an export strategy or plan

If your company has no coherent strategy for entering a new market, you have little chance of success. Writing an export plan does not necessarily mean undertaking a long paper exercise, it can be just making bullet points and developing a concise action plan. It is an excellent way of looking at your business objectively, focusing on your strengths and weaknesses and looking at potential opportunities and threats. Obviously your strengths as a company are what you will want to maximise and reinforce in any sales and marketing activities in the target market; the weaknesses may be things you need to address before embarking on exporting.

One of the key differences between selling in the domestic market and exporting is that in your domestic market, much of the business you have will have been obtained through word of mouth and referral. Prospective customers can lift the phone and enquire about your company reputation through others they know and whose judgement they trust. Gaining new business in the domestic market can therefore be largely reactive.

In an export market, gaining new business is all about being proactive as prospective customers may have never heard of your company or your customers before. Writing an export strategy / plan can assist you to think about how you will get your sales and marketing message across to potential customers.

Handel Export provides a range of services to both new and experienced exporters to make sure that they maximise their resources and avoid costly mistakes. See the section on Services on our website for details or Contact us for further information. If you would like to stay informed on future blogs and the next postings on this topic, please sign up for our updates by email.

If your company is new to exporting or you are already exporting, we are interesting in your comments on what you found to be the biggest obstacle or the most difficult issue in establishing sales in another market. Please send us your comments and observations!

Poland is the largest new European Union member with great business opportunities created by the size of the Polish market, the low labour costs, perspectives for economic growth and the availability of well educated personnel. Poland is divided into 16 voivodships. Each of these regions has its own specific character and offers different business opportunities. Poland benefits from the largest amount of EU Funds of any beneficiary EU member state: over €67 billion is available for the development of its infrastructure and workforce until 2013.

Poland is not only a dynamic economy – it is a very nice place to spend time with its beaches, large woodland complexes, lakes and mountains, beautiful small towns and lively large cities.

Guest speakers from Poland and Ireland will focus on:

• Poland’s Regional Policy – Opportunities through the European Structural and Social Funds
• Presentation of different regions, Special Economic Zones and Technology Parks
• Poland as an attractive tourist destination
• Valuable lessons from Irish companies operating in Poland
• Guidelines from Enterprise Ireland on ‘Doing Business in Poland’

A detailed programme for the event will be circulated shortly. The conference is free of charge (lunch included), book early to secure your place. To register for the event contact the Trade and Investment Section of the Polish Embassy on +353 1 269 1370 or email promotion.dublin@trade.gov.pl

His resignation is of particular concern as the Czech Republic currently holds the rotating presidency of the EU. This has led to some discussion over whether or not the countries of Central and Eastern Europe have sufficient political and economic stability to be capable of taking the presidency of the EU. What do you think? Should the countries of Central and Eastern Europe who joined the EU in 2004 be allowed to take the presidency of the EU or should this be left to the original 15 member states for the time being?

On Monday 23rd March 2009 Handel Export will be facilitating a visit by representatives of the Romanian Ministry of Foreign trade to Belfast. The Ministry of Foreign trade will be represented by Mr Mircea Toader, Director General for Europe and will be accompanied by representatives form the commercial department of the Romanian Embassy in London. The purpose of the visit is to build trading links with Northern Ireland. It is hoped that this visit will be a precursor to future incoming business delegations from Romania, giving the the opportunity to meet and establish trading links with Northern Ireland companies. Romania joined the EU on the 1st January 2009 and has excellent opportunities across a wide range of industry sectors.

Romania has a population of 22 million and offers strong business opportunities in sectors such as construction, infrastructure, environment, ports, agriculture, security, oil and gas, energy, franchising, ICT and tourism. There are particularly good opportunities for companies working in civil engineering and infrastructure as Romania will receive €3.2 billion this year to fund such projects. Romanian companies in this sector are interested in forming joint venture partnerships with companies who have experience in accessing EU funding. In the energy sector, including renewable energy, total investment will rise by up to €35 billion by 2020 according to the Ministry of Economy and Finance. The European Union has earmarked €350 million for energy efficiency projects in Romania out of which € 150 million is allotted to renewable energy projects from 2007-2013. Romania is already a large producer of bio fuels and there are expectations that Romania my become the main exporter of ‘green fuel’  in Europe. Many major European companies in this filed have already substantial investments in the sector.

In the environmental sector, there are opportunities in water and waste water, waste management, pollution control equipment, soil remediation and air quality control. Agriculture is also an important sector in the Romanian economy employing around 35% of the workforce. 40% of EU funds allocated to Romania from 2007-2013 will be spent in the agricultural sector.

Romania represents an attractive European market for doing business in as it is a developing market and therefore tends to have less market saturation in many sectors, providing longer term opportunities for growth.

Handel Export provides a range of services for companies who want to break into the Romanian market. These include market research, identification of potential partners and customers, sales prospecting and lead generation, organisation of market visits and meeting itineraries as well as preparing company sales and marketing strategies for the Romanian market.

During the visit the Romanian delegation will meet with key business organisations including Invest NI, the Northern Ireland Chamber of Commerce and Enterprise Northern Ireland.

Companies interested in finding out more about doing business in Romania can contact us for further information and to discuss their particular requirements.