Gavin Wheeldon launches Export Box to boost overseas trade

Feb 9 2010 by Henryk Zientek, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

A HUDDERSFIELD businessman is helping firms export their way to recovery.

Gavin Wheeldon, Meltham-based chief executive of translation services company Applied Language Solutions, has joined forces with business advice firm Grant Thornton in Yorkshire to launch a new scheme for small and medium-sized enterprises.

Export Box has been devised by Mr Wheeldon to help more firms take advantage of opportunities to sell products and services abroad.

Jonathan Riley, managing partner of Grant Thornton in Yorkshire, said he hoped recent figures showing the UK is officially out of recession would give SMEs the encouragement and confidence to consider exporting as a possibility for growth.

He said: “Export Box is an exciting new concept which provides invaluable help and support to SMEs who are interested in exporting but don’t know where to begin.

“Statistics show that only 75,000 businesses in Britain are exporting – and with the current weakness of the pound it is a great time for companies to look at trading internationally as a way of helping them through the recession.

“Our research suggests that if export growth were to increase from a steady 1% to 2.5% a year, then exports will become a net contributor to the UK economy by 2013 – adding in the region of £247bn to the economy over a five-year period.”

“Such an increase might sound ambitious, but if there are ways in which SMEs which might not ordinarily look beyond the UK can be helped to get a foothold in the export market, it could have a significant impact on the speed at which we can put the downturn behind us.

“The alternative is a long-term legacy of significant debt.”

At present, only 19% of SMEs trade outside the UK and only 4% of those feel they will continue to do so in the next year. In Yorkshire, figures from HM Revenue & Customs show that exports fell by 14.8% during the first quarter of 2009.