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M XL L S S L


LEAD FEATURE


THE MIDDLE


years, now selling to 80 countries. It set up an offi ce in India last year, has grown Chinese sales fi ve-fold since starting a base in Shanghai three years ago and has also signed a MoU over a possible expansion in Brazil. Yet, group managing director Philip


Bruce believes the company could do more. “Our sales outside the UK represent about 70 per cent of our turnover,” he says, “but we want to grow that further. We currently do about £66m of sales outside Europe. We want to double that by 2020. It will be largely about Brazil, India and China, but we’ll also look to the next tier of growth economies like Indonesia and continue growing in Australia, where our sales increased by 50 per cent last year.” In the middle of the MSB turnover band is yacht manufacturer Sunseeker International, which enjoyed sales of £276m in 2010/11. New avenues in Russia, China, Brazil, Venezuela and


Mexico have helped to counter slower markets in Europe and North America, with Asian sales increasing from fi ve to 20 per cent of turnover over three years.


SIZE RESTRICTIONS The middle can be uncomfortable though. As they range so widely in size, MSBs have a less clear identity than small and large companies and behave less as a homogenous group. Typically owner-directed, compared to owner- managed smaller and professionally managed larger fi rms, their sources of fi nance can be more restricted. MSBs’ export efforts are often pegged back by issues such as the complexity of their businesses, diffi culties in managing multi-site operations internationally and gaps in capability and fi nancial strength. “One of the biggest challenges is understanding whether industries and markets have an appetite for the products you are selling,” says Miller.


“For example, one of our products


which is like a hydraulic excavator with a magic hand, is a very important product in the West, but hardly used in the East. We started addressing this in India in 2008 and have basically seeded the market there, opening it up to this product. Now we’re looking to do the same in China, but there are cultural and language barriers when you’re selling a product that the local market doesn’t see a need for. The challenges are completely different in each market.” Family-owned Miller exports 45 per cent of its turnover and employs 180 people – it has a manufacturing joint venture making quick couplers in China. It is also considering joint venture and wholly-owned subsidiary options for the production of buckets and mining equipment in the Chinese market. “The mining sector is booming in China


and Asia-Pacifi c and we’re one of the top fi ve manufacturers of buckets for


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