GOING GLOBAL GOING GLOBAL


The Chamber’s INTERNATIONAL TRADE TEAM can help you navigate your way through all of the regulatory procedures and documents that you’ll need for successful international trading


FINANCIAL SUPPORT FOR EXPORTERS


UK Export Finance’s (UKEF) annual report and accounts reveal almost £17m of support for South East exporters, resulting in over £67m worth of overseas sales. This year, UKEF provided £2.5bn of support for


UK exporters. This helped 191 companies sell to 75 markets around the world, 77% of which were small and medium-sized businesses. Rt Hon. Dr Liam Fox MP, Secretary of State


for International Trade (pictured) said: “As an international economic department, our priority is to do all we can to support UK businesses as they seize the opportunities of global trade. UK Export Finance is at the heart of our offer to help them do so, and this report shows that it has been a landmark year for the UK’s award-winning export credit agency.” The results show that UKEF has supported £4.1bn in export


contracts through its trade finance products since 2011, which were introduced to help smaller businesses to export.


SEKO INVESTS IN NEW HEATHROW FACILITY


SEKO Logistics is demonstrating its confidence in the continued cross- border growth potential of British brands globally by investing in a new flagship airfreight and omni- parcel services facility close to London Heathrow airport. The move comes as SEKO’s revenues are set to top £100m in the UK in 2018 for the first time. With Heathrow’s expansion


gaining Government approval in June as well as the UK aiming to double its export business to £1tr by 2020, SEKO says Heathrow will become an even more vital gateway for new cross-border trading opportunities.


Looking to the long-term


If you’ve seen the latest figures released from Legal and General in August, you’ll see that they’ve reported ‘consistent delivery of growth’, with investment management up 4%, operating profit up 5% and group-wide investment up 38%.


Group Chief Executive, Nigel Wilson in an interview with the BBC, said that they’ve never had such a large order book in the UK, in housing, regeneration and investing in small growth businesses.


Making sure local businesses can get the information, advice and financial support they need to invest is more critical now than it’s ever been.


That’s why, SEMLEP is reviewing how to strengthen its Growth Hub service in line with the work they’re doing to prepare the area’s Local Industrial Strategy. This strategy is looking at what investment business say they need, and that contributes to boosting overall economic performance.


Moving into the new 22,000 sq ft


purpose-built location in Egham this month is part of a £5m-plus commitment to support SEKO customers’ fast-growing international shipment volumes, which includes the rapid expansion of pureplay e-tailer business from the UK to Australia, New Zealand and the U.S. SEKO opened its first UK location


in 2003 and now operates eight facilities, including a 225,000 sq ft logistics centre in Milton Keynes from where it delivers a full range of omnichannel services for global order fulfilment, delivery management, returns solutions and ecommerce.


“As we head into our fifth year, SEMLEP’s


Growth Hubs are supporting more businesses and more of those businesses are getting higher value, more intensive support,” said SEMLEP’s Growth Hub Manager Malcolm Johnston (pictured).


“Growth Hubs were set up with the mission to coordinate and simplify access to good quality, business support to help improve productivity, tackle barriers to growth and access the vast array of funding and finance opportunities available.”


“The number of businesses coming to us for intensive, one-to-one support to prepare for the future has more than doubled in this quarter compared to last year.”


Paul Griffiths, chief executive of the Chambers of Commerce for Northamptonshire and Milton Keynes, and Chair of SEMLEP’s Growth Hub Board, said: “Our area is very successful in business start-ups, a key indicator of a successful, growing economy. We also have higher than average business survival rates. But, we’re less successful in taking our businesses to the next stage and reaching their growth potential.”


Looking to the long-term, SEMLEP’s Growth Hub will be ramping up direct support for businesses with the potential to grow fast.


According the latest independent business survey commissioned by SEMLEP, businesses that achieve growth of 15% per annum – known as ‘scale-up’ businesses – were 25% more likely to have innovated in the past 12 months, and 31% more likely to innovate in the next 12 months.


“The Growth Hub Board is keen for SEMLEP to drive investment in this area.” said Paul Griffiths.


Malcolm Johnston said: “SEMLEP will continue to work with established businesses. We have secured Government funding to make sure that we remain a single point of contact for all businesses in the SEMLEP area seeking business support.”


For more information visit www.semlep.comor call 01234 436 100 OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2018 inbusiness 17


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