Member Article

Coventry firm selected as an Export Champion

A Coventry company that launched six years ago with the aim of being a local success story has been chosen as national champion for exporting.

Body Care Brand Development was established in Foleshill in 2013 by Hamzah Islam and Abrar Hussain creating toiletry products to sell in the Coventry area.

But when the company was approached by Premier League football club West Ham United to create branded products to be sold in the club’s retail store, it led to the firm trading nationally and internationally too.

It has been supported in its overseas efforts by Parminder Hayer, of the Department for International Trade team based at the International Trade Hub at the Coventry and Warwickshire Chamber of Commerce, and now has products in a range of European football club stores including Olympique Lyonnais, AS Monaco and Feyenoord.

The company is also in advanced talks in the USA where NBA, NFL and MLS clubs are looking to stock the Body Care Brand Development products, which now includes an extensive range from toiletries to branded grooming sets, and even jigsaws!

Hamzah said: “It’s been an amazing six years. When we launched, we wanted to do well in Coventry and that was about as far is it went.

“Then West Ham asked us to provide products for their ‘Forever Blowing Bubbles’ range and we found we had a whole new market to pursue and now the likes of Manchester City, Liverpool and Tottenham are clients – as are Coventry City.

“We then started talking to the Department for International Trade and they were great in helping us to look at the potential for overseas markets, helping us to research where we could export and the way to go about it.

“There are challenges to trading in international markets but that’s where the support is so helpful in getting you over some of those barriers.

“Around 60 per cent of our products are now exported and the aim is to increase that with massive potential in the USA and also in other countries too.”

The company has recently launched its new Pom Baby Organic product range, which is due to be launched in 60 pharmacies in Dubai, and the firm has been named as one of the Department for International Trade’s Export Champions.

It will see Body Care Brand Development become ambassadors for exporting, encouraging other companies across Coventry and Warwickshire to fulfil their potential for international trade as part of the Government’s Exporting is GREAT campaign.

Ajay Desai, the Director of International Trade at the Coventry and Warwickshire Chamber of Commerce, said: “It is great that we have an Exporting Champion on our patch and the company should serve as an inspiration to businesses across the region on the huge benefits to exporting.

“The company’s commitment to quality helped to land huge domestic clients such as Manchester City and Liverpool football clubs and that same commitment has helped it achieve success abroad.

“The support we have been able to offer has been help in finding the right markets, engaging with those markets and then ensuring compliance.

“There are so many opportunities available now to Body Care Brand Development in terms of new markets and we look forward to working with them to make the most of that, as well as using their story to encourage others to trade internationally.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Matt Joyce .