I've been to Birmingham a couple of times before but have stayed in the centre of the City. My exercise regime has suffered since being back in the UK so thought I'd have a go at finding somewhere to run in Birmingham. Not usually the easiest task in the centre of a city, but actually Birmingham is set on a series of canals and the tow paths make a perfect running track. Winter has started to set in but I can imagine that an evening drink next to a canal on a hot summer’s day would be lovely and so close to the centre of a big city.
My day in Birmingham was dominated by attending the regional team meeting for the local UKTI office. It is useful to catch up on what the International Trade Advisers are doing to support local companies, how we can improve the services we deliver to companies and how we can work more effectively together.
The West Midlands team told me that companies in their region had had a tough time through the recession. Engineering, including automotive, loomed large in the region and had been hit quite hard by the global recession. This made it even more important that UKTI supported companies through Passport to Export, Gateway to Global Growth and other mechanisms to make the most of the opportunity presented by exporting. See www.chamberinternationaltrade.co.uk for full details of these programs and how to access them.
Of course I didn’t leave Birmingham without meeting a manufacturing company. This time it was Conex, which makes copper and brass plumbing fittings. My dad used to be a plumbing and heating engineer and so these products seemed particularly familiar. The company is looking to find distributors in Australia and its products certainly compete on quality and specification. What stood out for me about Conex was the systematic way it researched potential export markets to fully understand the competition, pricing and methods to market: a text book approach.
