Invest NI helps local firms enhance exporting ability

Within the last financial year, through its ‘Growth Start’ programme, Invest Northern Ireland’s Western office based in Omagh and Enniskillen has helped a record number of 18 local start-up companies sell their services and products outside of Northern Ireland.

Invest NI defines Export Starts as businesses with the potential to trade outside Northern Ireland, generally exploiting near-market opportunities such as Great Britain, and the Republic of Ireland, but also with the potential to do business further afield. Available to new businesses across the region the ‘Growth Start’ programme offers business counselling, financial support and access to business information. Leslie Morrison, Chief Executive of Invest NI, commented: “We have helped these companies accelerate their growth by providing the knowledge and capabilities they need to be successful within their own business sectors. By providing this information we are helping local firms to exploit new market opportunities and enhance their export potential.”

All eighteen firms have been working closely with Invest NI’s western office, which was established to ensure that businesses within the local area have access to the right support and advice they need to stay competitive in today’s aggressive market place.

Patricia Devine, Local Office Manager for Invest NI based in Omagh, said: “Through our office local companies in the surrounding area can receive access to the full range of services and expertise Invest NI has to offer. For most companies exporting further afield this means a dramatic increase in the number of rival firms they must compete against. We are helping local companies prepare for that eventuality and learn more about the new markets they will be operating in.”

Local firm CK International Ltd currently exports approximately 40% of their products within the RoI and the UK. Based in Dungannon the company is involved in the manufacture and sale of two different products – bailers, which are used to compress large quantities of waste and mechanical booms used in the quarrying industry. As a recent start-up company CK International has received a wide-range of advice from Invest NI including research and development, marketing requirements, ICT and recruitment.

Aidan O’Neill, Managing Director of CK International, commented: “Working with Invest NI has given us the confidence and support we need to enhance our export offering. The range of advice we have received, in terms of exploiting new opportunities and market awareness has allowed us to compete more effectively against rival companies both in the South and in the rest of the UK.”

(GB)