Warrington is home to the UKTI NW team which is right next to the North West Development Agency (NWDA). Like all of the Regional Development Agencies (RDAs) and Devolved Administrations (DA) the NWDA www.nwda.co.uk has responsibility for regional economic development in the North West and, importantly to us, supporting inward investors from Australia into the region.
Australia is an important source of inward investment into the UK. Macquarie and Westfield are some of the headline companies but there are also many hundreds of smaller tech-savvy companies that use the UK as a springboard into the European and US markets. These companies get access to world class research, a highly trained workforce, a large developed market and support to find premises, make partnerships and integrate with local networks. And once an Australian company sets down roots in UK we will treat them exactly the same as a British company and support them to build their export markets in other countries through our network of UKTI posts around the world. Find out more at www.uktradeinvest.gov.uk or if you're an Aussie company who wants to expand into the UK contact us on bcgsyd2@britaus.net.
I then went on to meet a number of companies. Redfred are a creative graphics/web design/marketing company based in Chester. It has company has already looked at the opportunities to work in Australia and it seems likely that there is a market for their services. Explaining how their products are different from what's already in the market will be crucial to their success. UKTI in Australia will be support them every step of the way.
Next I met Ultraframe (just in case you thought we didn’t do manufacturing). Ultraframe designs and manufactures a unique building system that's used to erect conservatories, light office spaces and other structures. Manufactured in Clotheroe it's already exported to many different parts of the world. I was intrigued to find out that there's national differences in how sun rooms and conservatories are built. Ultraframe’s system is particularly flexible and they use a number of special products to cope with the challenges of each country. In Australia, one of the main problems is heat, so they could use a special reflective glass which doesn't allow the heat to build up inside — it's been particularly successful in Arizona.
The International Coaching Academy is an organisation that has been particularly successful in supporting the personal development of executives. It has developed a version of its programme that can be rolled out in international markets. We discussed how UKTI could support the company to understand the Australian market, the competition, pricing, how to access their customers and even provide a venue for their initial courses.
Finally, I was able to counsel Clive Drinkwater the UKTI Regional Director for the North West on blogging. Clive has just started to blog and had been following these reports. Check out what is interesting Clive at http://blog.ukti.gov.uk/author/cdrinkwater. Clive is someone who, like me, sees business as being at the forefront of the UK’s recovery and believes that we should support companies to find and develop new markets.
Whenever I travel to this region I go and see my friend Steve in Liverpool. This is a city that has effectively rebuilt itself and now has a modern vibrant city centre. It is also the home to some of the best bars in the UK and people that really know how to enjoy themselves. Took a bit of a headache back across the Pennines with me!
The final week of my trip… the first four days I took a personal development course at Ashridge. A chance to look at my skills, what I'm doing and how I do it: quite intense but definitely worthwhile. I think it's crucial that we continually try to improve and deliver better and more focused services to our customers – training is a vital part of this.
On Thursday evening, I was able to attend the highlight of the whole trip. I saw my daughter ‘star’ (my slightly biased view) in her school play Talent. This show was based loosely around the X factor phenomenon. If you want to have a look at some of the songs check out YouTube (search for ‘Talent Bootham’). I could not have been prouder.
