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Small companies say Coalition is failing them over exports

By Helen Loveless

Published: 17:29 EDT, 15 December 2012 | Updated: 17:29 EDT, 15 December 2012


Nearly 60 per cent of small and medium-sized businesses believe that the Government is failing to help them export.

Research by accountancy firm RSM Tenon, carried out for Financial Mail, shows that firms have a depressingly negative view of the State help available, with just 21 per cent saying they thought the Coalition was helping businesses export.

Figures published this month show that exports fell by one per cent in October while imports rose by 2.5 per cent. Container ship: Exports fell by one per cent in October while imports rose by 2.5 per cent

This comes despite Government efforts to emphasise the importance of businesses’ exports.

In September it announced a further £13 million in funding would be given to UK Trade and Investment (UKTI) to boost the number of firms exporting.

Most of this, up to £9 million, is to be targeted at small and medium-sized businesses, with advice clinics and overseas trips.


A further £2.5 million is being invested in helping firms access and win business across the globe.

Yet according to Tenon’s research more than half of smaller businesses surveyed have not even considered exporting. Trying: Simon Wyatt says civil servants lack experience

John Abbott, head of clients and markets at RSM Tenon, says: ‘Of the firms we surveyed, 38 per cent are exporting but 53 per cent have not even considered it, which is surprising given the strength of the overseas market compared with the domestic market and economy.’

Simon Wyatt is commercial director of Contamac in Saffron Walden, Essex, which makes the polymers used in the production of contact lenses and intra-ocular lenses  – lenses inserted in the eye following cataract surgery.

The firm exports at least 85 per cent of its products to 65 countries, including the US and increasingly to India. It began exporting within a couple of years of being launched in 1987.

Simon, 52, says: ‘There are very few businesses making contact and intra-ocular lenses in the UK, so to find new business opportunities we had to move into exporting.’

John McGregor, who founded the business, visited international trade shows to make contact with potential customers. The business has also received help and advice from the Institute of Export – a membership body set up to help firms trade abroad – and the local chambers of commerce.

While welcoming the steps the Government has taken to help firms export, Simon has mixed views about how effective they have been.

‘UKTI has very good intentions, but the problem is that many people there have not run a business, export or otherwise,’ he says.

‘The challenge we faced was having to learn how to do everything ourselves because we didn’t have the experience either.’

However, the business is now thriving, turning over nearly £7 million and employing 58 staff in the UK. For most of its life Contamac has been self-funded, but this year it secured a Eurostars grant after partnering with a firm in the Netherlands. The grants are awarded to firms classified as Research & Development businesses. This means they must spend at least ten per cent of their turnover on research activities.

They must also join forces with a company on the Continent. In total, the two firms were awarded nearly £700,000.

Contamac is now set to target China as a new market. Simon says: ‘While there has been economic instability across the world, we are in a huge number of markets, which helps.

‘Also with an ageing world population, demand is not likely to fall.’

Contact: britishchambers.org.uk; export.org.uk; ukti.gov.uk.

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