Gateshead firm goes international with new Canadian exporter

A Gateshead-based family firm is exporting to North America and beyond, with support from the Department for International Trade (DIT).

Tech-Set specialises in designing, illustrating and producing textbooks for the education sector. As syllabuses tend to be revised regularly, Tech-Set decided to explore export opportunities as a way to combat the peaks and troughs in its workflow.

Tech-Set produces textbooks in all subjects from primary and GCSE-equivalent up to degree level, working with publishers including Pearson Education and the Cambridge and Oxford University Presses.

Adam Wilkinson, senior design manager, said: “Everything in our business is digital. We send our work to publishers electronically, so there are very few barriers to us working with someone on the other side of world.

“After seeing another graphic design business in the region talking about their export success on LinkedIn, I decided to see what exporting could do for us.

“I’d always thought of exporting as being manufacturers selling their products overseas, but it includes any sort of service you can provide abroad.

“I contacted our local Chamber of Commerce and they put me in touch with John Doolan, an International Trade Adviser at DIT, who came to see us.”

Tech-Set now works with the Canadian firm ‘Maths - No Problem!’, which also has UK offices in Tunbridge Wells, and is set to work on a series of books for the publisher.

Within the next year, Tech-Set hopes to create two new jobs, increase production turnover by 12.5 per cent and obtain two new big clients.

Adam continued: “We’re just at the start of our relationship with ‘Maths - No Problem!’ but it has good prospects and has helped change our outlook about the difficulties of exporting.

“DIT has provided contacts that we would never have been able to access ourselves and we are now exploring opportunities in English-speaking markets around the world.

“We have got to look for new revenues and there is no reason why we can’t work with customers anywhere.”

Founded in 1979, Tech-Set has remained a family-run businesses. Now employing 16 staff locally, it has a turnover of over £750k.

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