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.
New paragraph
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.
New paragraph
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.
SLEC is sponsored by HSBC - the world's local bank
Bryan Treherne is a member of the national executive of the Institute of Export and chairman of South London Export Club.