42 LANCASHIRE BUSINESS WEEK
CREATING THE RIGHT ENVIRONMENT
NEW CUSTOMERS AND NEW MARKETS
The environment and the response of Lancashire businesses to the eco-challenges facing the planet are becoming major factors in the quest for new opportunities.
The opening session of Lancashire Business Week 2021 heard that companies that don’t have an environmental policy are finding it increasingly more difficult to tender for work.
Larger corporations want to see their ethical approach to business mirrored by their supply chain. Consumers are also demanding businesses show the action they are taking to achieve net-zero ambitions.
Nick Butcher, process and equipment development director at Accrington headquartered machinery manufacturer E+R Group, told the online audience that the environment was becoming a dominating factor when it came to doing business.
Nick said he believed businesses would increasingly lead the work to tackle climate change. He said: “We are seeing a lot of change in the behaviour of blue chips who want to have an ethical approach. They are passing that down to us.”
He explained that they increasingly wanted to see the company’s policies before even allowing it to tender for work. That approach was being passed right down the supply chain.
Nick said: “The very fact big businesses are being asked to show their environmental credentials impacts on smaller business.”
He added: “Businesses didn’t fail at COP26, they came together, and they will ultimately drive this. Consumers will lead by the choices they make as well.
“Government policies will come in; legislation will change over time, but business ethics is becoming a big dominant.
“In the next five years if you don’t have an environmental policy that will be an exception. More and more businesses are requiring this.”
He said E+R had put together its path to carbon- zero and would be publishing annual targets
Ged Ennis Lynne Gillen and its performance in meeting them.
The business is also part of a UK consortium of world-leading organisations looking to develop the next generation of batteries.
Ged Ennis, managing director of Burnley- based solar PV and smart energy solution provider Low Carbon Energy Co, said there had been an “absolute sea-change” since the start of the pandemic.
He said since the start of the first lockdown the business had been inundated with enquiries and he explained: “Manufacturers had time, because they weren’t manufacturing, to start to look at the way they were going to address business post-pandemic.
“They realised cost and carbon were on the agenda and they had space in their own minds to think about it.”
Ged added: “It has gone beyond ‘greenwash’, there is an issue around the world where we have got to do something about carbon. It is not a game anymore, there is a genuine desire to look at it.
“ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) is the real deal and there is a seriousness about it.”
Lynne Gillen export manager at the Department for International Trade (DiT), told the audience that the disruption businesses had faced also brought new market opportunities. She also spoke of the importance of “connectivity” when it came to expanding markets.
Her advice to businesses looking at new markets was to do their research. She said: “It is imperative, if companies want to look at new market opportunities, to analyse what is out there and what is available.”
Summer Jenkins
Lynne said there was a “plethora” of information services available, including British embassies. She added: “Companies can use them to understand the local market and the opportunities. Trade missions and trade shows are also a really good way of looking at new markets.”
Nick Butcher, whose E+R Group exports 95 per cent of its products, added: “We establish a lot of agents worldwide, it is important we have boots on the ground.
“It is about understanding how local business is done. It is also important that you are always getting in front of new people.”
Summer Jenkins, CRM manager and security sales professional at Heysham-based Lingwood Security, said that as a service provider the business had responded to the challenges of Covid by coming up with new innovations.
She added: “Communication is the main thing, keeping in constant communication with the client. It is also about being honest, feeding back information to the client, whether it is positive or negative. And if it’s negative, telling them of the actions being put in place to improve things.”
VIEW ON DEMAND Nick Butcher
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