EXPORTERS

1. OLIVER VALVES Cheshire-based Oliver Valves (valves.co.uk), the largest

privately owned valve maker in Europe, has achieved rapid growth. It has the biggest pipeline of orders in its history including two of the biggest orders the company has ever received – a £12.6m contract to supply 105 of its large Twinsafe valves for a major oil-extraction project off the Qatar coast and a £7.5m project with one of Brazil’s leading oil companies to install 391 valves on two fl oating production, storage and offl oading (FPSO) vessels. Michael Oliver, chairman and founder, says: “An increasingly robust overseas market, coupled with the talent of our people will allow us to position ourselves for even more signifi cant growth next year.”

2. CAMBRIDGE EDUCATION Cambridge Education (camb-ed.com), part of the Mott

MacDonald Group, has provided education services globally for more than 20 years. The company works with principals, senior management and other education professionals across schools, groups, partnerships and local and regional authorities to design and implement programmes to improve the quality and impact of teaching and learning. Marian Brooks, executive director, Cambridge Education, says: “For the past eight years in the United States, for example, the company has grown its export activity through partnering with more than 2,500 schools in more than 100 districts across 22 states.”

3. RS SAILING

Privately-owned and operated RS Sailing (rssailing.com) was born out of a passion for dinghy sailing and now exports 60 per cent of its production. Finding colleagues around the world in export markets who share its drive and excitement in the sport is the key to replicating its success overseas, believes Martin Wadhams, the fi rm’s managing director. He says: “Not being too hasty to export is paramount. By creating a strong brand in home waters fi rst, the desire from overseas very nearly comes to us fi rst. It’s all too easy to rush to multiple markets without the strength in products or brands to give customers the confi dence to commit.”

5. ALLIGAN Trade not aid was the principle that led managing director, Graham

McAvoy to consider providing tourism services to Ethiopia. His company, Alligan (alligan.co.uk) is an education consultancy working with organisations like the Department for Children, Schools and Families on the development of new city academies. It is a far cry from third world tourism, but McAvoy was keen to pursue a personal interest in the country. He says: “We were new to this and the support provided by our export marketing research advisor was invaluable. She helped us to determine the scope of the research, advising us on the sort of questions to ask, how to conduct the research exercise and the various research methods available. The research has been invaluable in determining our approach to the market.”

4. SITEVISIBILITY Integrated marketing, search engine optimisation (SEO) and

social media agency SiteVisibility (sitevisibility.co.uk), is behind the UK’s most popular internet marketing podcast downloaded by more than half a million people globally. It is the number one podcast for marketing in most English-speaking countries on iTunes and each weekly episode gets about 15,000 listeners. Jason Woodford, chief executive of SiteVisibility, says: “Podcasting is an important element of social media and the delivery channel is largely via iTunes. I created the Internet Marketing Podcast as a tool for traditional marketing managers to learn about digital during their commute to work.”

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6. SENERGY ECONNECT As an international consultancy specialising in the grid connection

and electrical engineering of renewable energy projects, Senergy Econnect (senergyworld.com) has considerable experience of developing overseas markets. Senergy was interested in the growing renewables sector and the US wind power market in particular, which is valued at around US$65bn a year, and growing at a rate of more than 20 per cent per annum. To help it focus its efforts Senergy used the UKTI Export Marketing Research Scheme, says Guy Nicholson, business development director for Senergy Alternative Energy: “The US market is huge and it would have been easy to become overwhelmed by it.”