Egypt delivers for Hyde manufacturer

Date published: 19 August 2010

A Manchester manufacturing company has completed new overseas orders of £86,000 despite the market conditions.

Newland Engineering, based in Hyde, makes a type of conveyor used to load and unload containers, trailers and long vehicles.

These telescopic belt conveyors are used in warehouses throughout the UK and across the world but the company was keen to exploit even more overseas markets in a bid to weather the recession.

So the team at Newland spoke to UK Trade and Investment (UKTI) about the organisation’s Gateway to Global Growth (G3) programme which offers assistance to experienced exporters, and used it to open up trade in Holland and Egypt.

UKTI’s G3 programme is supported by the Northwest Regional Development Agency and the European Regional Development Fund.

Mike Kyrycz, UK and Export Sales Manager, said: “We are always looking for new markets and G3 allowed us to get abroad and see people. Face-to-face meetings are very important wherever in the world you go, it shows potential customers that you are interested in them.”

Mike said without the UKTI match-funding assistance which allowed him to travel to Egypt, and later Holland, Newland would not have had the resources to win this new business: “For a small firm like us, any help is massive. In our case it enabled me to really get to know the materials handling company we were dealing with, and they got to know me.”

While there he was able to attend the International Handling Expo in Cairo and worked on the company’s stand, he said: “If I had not been there I would not have got an order from a multinational tyre company with a manufacturing plant in Alexandria which turned out to be worth £35,000.”

Soon afterwards G3 helped Newland source a Dutch distributor, securing a £31,000 deal. The trial equipment used to win that business was also sold to another company in Holland for £20,000.

Mike said Newland’s is now looking to uncover more sales in Eastern Europe, and added that its confidence in expanding overseas has grown as a result of recent successes: “Last year was a really tough time for manufacturers in the UK, and we would not have been able to get the Cairo job without the match-funding we received because we could not have afforded to travel there.”

Jim Robinson, UKTI’s International Trade Adviser for the company, said: “Newland have worked extremely hard to expand their business in Europe and Africa and it was satisfying to be able to offer them the support they needed to do that.

“The Gateway to Global Growth programme is aimed at more experienced exporters, but we would urge any company, no matter what its field or export experience, to contact us if it is keen to grow its foreign trade.”

UKTI is the government department that provides integrated support services for UK companies engaged in overseas trade and, in the North West, UKTI acts as the international trade arm of the Northwest Regional Development Agency (NWDA) working in partnership to strengthen the international trade support service for businesses across the North West.

For further information on UKTI services, contact the North West International Trade Team. Tel: 0845 603 7053, e-mail: info@uktinorthwest.co.uk