Member Article

Clive Drinkwater beats the drum for high-growth markets

Companies in the North West of England have been encouraged to investigate ways to export to high growth markets.

Clive Drinkwater, regional director of UK Trade and Investment North West has urged businesses to look at markets such as India, Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Central and Latin America while on a visit to Salford-based firm, Metalube.

Metalube is a highly successful exporter of lubricants for use in the production of copper and aluminium wire, and recently won the Queen’s Award for Enterprise 2013 for International Trade.

The business trades with a wide range of markets all over the world, including Bahrain, China, India, Saudi Arabia and Egypt as well as Belgium, Germany and Portugal.

It currently employs 31 staff across the world and exports 98% of its products, while 66% are exported to high-growth markets in the Middle East and Asia.

Doug Hunt, commercial director for Metalube, commented: “Our top markets are currently Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Germany, and we are working with UKTI to further develop opportunities and tackle new markets.

“Mexico is currently starting to pick up as a market for us, with orders worth £200,000 this year, and we are looking to set up a commercial office there to deal with sales and marketing.

“We also intend to broaden our product range and to recruit more UK staff in our laboratory. We invest heavily in R&D and make all the active ingredients for our products in-house, using state of the art equipment and the latest techniques.

“Our business model is to develop and manufacture in the UK, protecting our intellectual property, and to work with UKTI and employ trusted commercial managers overseas to maximise our sales in each market.”

Mr Drinkwater visited the firm as part of a wider tour of the North West for UKTI’s Export Week, which is a 50 event initiative that took place across the whole of the UK last week.

Mr Drinkwater commented: “The ability to trade anywhere in the world will be a defining characteristic of the most successful business of the future.

“I am delighted to be able to visit Metalube, a great example of a North West company that is successful internationally because it offers a quality, specialised product which is backed by sound investment in R&D and a well-supported export strategy.

“In ten years’ time the world’s population will have grown by a further 1 billion people, almost all of that in emerging, high growth economies.

“With our current biggest markets experiencing the slowest growth rates, we desperately need to embrace the opportunities that exist in developing markets or risk being left behind.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Miranda Dobson .