Bryan's Blog

Bryan Treherne is a member of the national executive of the Institute of Export and chairman of South London Export Club.

A seasoned trader with decades of international experience, he was made an MBE in 2008 for services to export at the behest of UK Trade & Investment, a British government department.

Each month Bryan will have something to say about Britain's place in the global economy and how firms in south London can take advantage of the wealth of international trading experience.

Bryan's views are his own and not necessarily those of the club.

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Bryan's Blog - August 2010

Should we follow in the PM’s footsteps?

INDIA is a fashionable place to visit at the moment: the subject of a recent charm offensive by David Cameron, members of his cabinet and a wide range of executives from larger British firms.

But the official visit, with all the publicity it generated, could be equally good news for smaller firms too. Living and working in such an ethnically diverse area as south London we have plenty of contacts in India, all of whom offer potential business opportunities. They are well worth pursuing.

Britain has a strong partnership with India. Our joint trade is worth £12.5 billion. We are the top European investor in India and India is the top Asian investor in this country by the number of projects in which it is involved.

India achieved growth of 6.7 per cent in 2008/09: it did not go into recession. The Indian government is predicting 6.5 to seven per cent growth for 2009/10. The country has a middle class of 300 million people and represents a huge sales opportunity for firms in this country.

In 2008/9 we attracted 108 project investments from India (second only to the United States) and that created 4,139 new jobs in Britain. India is the world’s fourth largest economy in terms of purchasing power parity. It is expected to overtake the United States in the mid-2030s. Annual GDP growth increased from six per cent in the 1990s to nine per cent in the past four years.

There are more than 600 Indian companies with investments in Britain; about two thirds are in the ICT and/or software sectors. The value of Indian investment in Britain is estimated to be £9 billion. Taking large acquisitions into account, we receive more than 50 per cent of India's investment in Europe. About 20 per cent of India’s IT revenues come from here.

A substantial proportion (40 per cent) of India’s population is under the age of 15: a huge new consumer pool for British business to fish. There are commercial opportunities in towns outside the main centres: for example, Nagpur, the geographical heart of India, is to become the country’s logistics hub.

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Bryan's Blog - July 2010

Apply intellect to increase overseas sales

MANY of us still think of exporting as selling goods abroad, but increasingly in Britain and particularly in south London we should be thinking services.

Architects, designers and planners have been doing particularly well lately in China where they are helping the country’s larger cities to formulate sensitive approaches to sustainable living and sympathetic redevelopment.

For example, Shanghai is investing £1 billion in regeneration of the Jing An district and architects at the CJ Partnership are developing a strategic urban plan. Jing An is one of the city’s oldest and most diverse districts: a long-term French presence has led to a distinct architectural style. Many buildings from the 19th and early 20th century are now protected.

The British firm is supporting Tongji University’s School of Architecture and Urban Planning which is leading the project. The three-phase development will take ten years to complete: the centrepiece will be a 25-storey retail and office tower. The first phase, due to be completed by 2012, includes two subway stations and the renovation of older buildings for residential, retail, or cultural use. The development will also be as green as possible: local materials such as recycled copper cladding will provide shading, helping to reduce energy use.

A sustainable approach is fundamental to work being done by Arup in Changxindian, a suburb of Beijing. The area is to become the Chinese capital’s first sustainable community and features residential and commercial development, along with open space for a population of 70,000. The British firm worked with Beijing Urban Planning and Design Institute to prepare a master plan with a vision for sustainable living: it won the 2009 award of excellence from the International Society of City and Regional Planners (ISOCARP).

Low-carbon development is even more important in Beijing’s congested central business district, so city authorities have invited teams to set out their proposals for a greener, people-centred extension to the area. British urban planner and designer Space Syntax is working with the China Academy of Urban Planning and Design to develop a vision of the city that encourages pedestrians and cyclists and increases the amount of open space.

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Bryan's Blog - June 2010

Unsung heroes come to the fore

AWARD ceremonies are always worth encouraging. They offer the chance of recognition to companies that might otherwise be overlooked.

And they invariably teach the organisers and sponsors at least as much as they do the entrants. So SLEC was particularly pleased to sponsor an international trade award for the first time this year as part of the increasingly well-established South London Business Awards.

A glance at the six short-listed entries shows what an eclectic bunch of international traders we have in the area.

SLE is perhaps the most conventional of the businesses, though trading in a very specialist area. It is a tribute to the hard work of Bernard Nelligan and his team that they have been able to instil such a high degree of trust in medical institutions around the world.

The entrepreneur is never far from the front row when it comes to world trade. He is the reason we are so well established in so many international markets. He is a fund of bright ideas - like Smarajit Roy and his Neat-U-Loo portable toilet, which offers an ingenious solution to an otherwise intractable problem.

We are fortunate to have a business airport on the patch, particularly one as well-known around the world as Biggin Hill. Today’s airport is a far cry from the fighter station that won such distinguished battle honours in the Second World War, but it helps us now in the fight for increased international business.

And then there are Genuine Solutions of Chessington and South London College in Deptford, both contributing in their own ways to the comprehensive nature of worldwide business that goes on in this dynamic part of the capital.

There can be few awards organisers that would initially consider an undertaker for an international prize, but Rowland Brothers International is a worthy finalist, given the specialised and highly technical work it does to ensure that departed relatives and friends are restored to loved ones in this country.

I am particularly pleased that Tony Rowland and his team won both the medium-sized business award and the one for the overall business of the year.

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Bryan's Blog - May 2010

We must go back to Ghana

REFERBISHED computers and reconditioned generators were among the goods for which we were seeking a market in Ghana.

We were also offering second-hand clothes, laboratory and hospital equipment, food and groceries and corporate gifts. And there was expertise to be had in oil and gas production, management training and staff recruitment.

We took 14 companies on a six-day trade mission to the West African state of Ghana. The mission was organised by SLEC in association with UK Trade & Investment and we were very successful, making some sales and many useful contacts.

One of our missioners is in advanced discussions to supply 290 laptop computers for and e-parliament initiative – the tender was announced while we were there. He also has potential orders for a further 200 laptops next month.

Mark Dalgety has sold speciality teas to a supermarket and found himself an agent to continue the work in his absence.

We received considerable support from Jamie Cribb and his team at the British High Commission in Accra. We are most grateful. With the team’s help we were able to arrange many meetings across the group from which we discovered some significant commercial prospects.

Ghana is Britain’s tenth-largest market in Africa. We exported goods valued at £259 million in 2009. Our export of services was worth £134m in 2008 (the latest year for which full figures are available).

Formerly the Gold Coast, Ghana was the first sub-Saharan British colony to obtain independence and there is immense goodwill towards Britain, with strong cultural and commercial links. Britain is a second home for many Ghanaians.

GDP growth is forecast at 5.3 per cent for 2010 and 12.2 per cent for 2011 (EIU April 2010). Ghana remains a prosperous market for exporters. Ghanaians are keen to do business with British companies, whose goods are associated with quality. UK standards and procedures are still widely applied in Ghana.

Many Ghanaian companies are looking for overseas partners. Ghana is definitely a market to which we will return in the next 12 months. There is good potential, with a stable political set up and an improving economy, all allied to the prospect of oil coming on stream later this year.

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Bryan's Blog - April 2010

Sport and trade go hand in hand over the coming decade

FOOTBALL fans may want to do some international business while they’re in South Africa for the World Cup in a few weeks time.

A number of organisations, including the chambers of commerce in Johannesburg and Durban, and Accelerate the Cape in Cape Town, are all keen to make the most of the opportunities. They want to meet visiting fans of the beautiful game who are also entrepreneurs and who would like to combine pleasure with potential business.

Johannesburg Chamber is offering visitors the use of its 2010 World Cup Business Desk to arrange one-to-one meetings with potential international partners at its prestigious city centre offices.

The chamber is also happy to answer product and service sourcing enquiries and even to arrange site visits where appropriate. And it is making its all-day lounge available to visitors who want to network with the city’s businesses.

Durban Chamber is offering a dedicated 2010 Business Desk and is particularly keen to hear from ‘green’ manufacturers and suppliers. The city’s Moses Mobhida football stadium is the first in the world to boast a zero carbon footprint, so Durban is concentrating on a KwaZulu Natal initiative to establish a cluster of ‘green’ companies by attracting eco-friendly suppliers.

Accelerate the Cape is arranging business breakfasts in Cape Town on days when England has matches to play.

But for those who are not going to the tournament, or who favour other forms of sport, 2010 is only the start of ten years commercial co-operation between the two countries. And it will lead to opportunities galore for London firms, particularly in Cape Town, as the two cities support each other in what they are calling a ‘golden decade of sport’.

The 2010 FIFA World Cup; the 2012 London Olympics; the 2015 Rugby World Cup, centred on Twickenham; an England bid for the 2018 FIFA World Cup, centred on Wembley; and a likely Cape Town bid for the 2020 Olympics will all generate additional expertise and present numerous opportunities for joint working to the mutual advantage of both cities.

It’s a good time to be an international trader.

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Bryan's Blog - March 2010

It’s time to respond to the competition and sell, sell, sell.

BRITAIN has been a trading nation for centuries, but she is now being outclassed by some of her closest neighbours.

Fellow members of the European Union, like France, Germany and the Netherlands, are selling more abroad than we are; while we fail to see the full potential of being part of the largest single market in the world.

Ask British businesses about lucrative markets and their thoughts turn to China or the United States – and yet the EU has a bigger gross domestic product than either. The latest GDP figures reveal that China generates a modest US$ 4.9 billion; the United States, an infinitely larger US$ 14.3 trillion; but the EU out performs both with a staggering US$19.9 trillion.

China is a difficult market to conquer – beaurocracy and working practices make progress slow and expensive, with no guarantee of success. The United States is somewhat less united than it might at first appear, with different regulations in each state making it necessary to treat each as an independent entity.

In the EU standards are being integrated further every year, making inter-state trade easier for every business in the union, including those in south London. And Britain, like its three neighbours, has tariff-free access to the whole of the EU – its 26 partners, soon to be 28 when Croatia and Iceland join in 18 months time.

Within the EU, France is a major market for aerospace, biotechnology and ICT, particularly software applications, while Germany has an enviable reputation for advanced machinery, motor vehicles and precision engineering.

Both are also awesome international traders: in 2008, Germany was the world’s largest exporter of goods – its sixth year at the top – and its second-largest exporter of services.

In the same year France was the world’s fifth largest exporter of goods and its fourth-largest exporter of services. And the French are the world’s second-largest investors – more than 30,000 sites in foreign countries belong to their companies.

With competition like that Britain needs to improve its international performance, but the good news is that it is ideally placed to do so, with lots of long-standing friends beyond the EU and an increasingly important place at the heart of it.

Bryan's Blog  - February 2010.

Welcome to the first in a series of monthly musings

At 68 I should be retired really, but I still enjoy what I do.

I can’t tell you how satisfying it is to see a new exporter land his or her first order – and the more difficult the market, the greater the satisfaction when we crack it. I am a firm believer in overseas trade. We have been a trading nation for centuries and it makes sense commercially.

Whatever the economic climate – even the present British one – there is always somewhere in the world that is enjoying faster growth than we are. Selling in a number of markets helps a business to smooth even the bumpiest trading cycle.

I know people who believe you need to conquer Britain – become a national name – before you consider selling abroad. I disagree. I can quote examples of south London firms – particularly one-woman bands – who have made a huge success of overseas trading.

But international business is not a get-rich-quick solution; particularly in the Far East it can be painfully slow. Wherever possible I try to encourage would-be exporters to look for a long-term business partner – maybe by forming a joint venture in which each brings something unique to the table.

Very often the British partner will have the know-how, while one from a developing country will have access to a plentiful supply of labour. The annual profits from this kind of venture tend to be smaller in the early years, but they go on for longer and are therefore greater overall.

I particularly enjoy chairing the South London Export Club, which meets ten times a year, usually in central Croydon, and offers advice and support to actual and would-be international traders. Invariably there is someone who has the answer to any given question, or knows someone who does.

We open a lot of otherwise locked doors that way.

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