Geoff Turnbull makes things. The company he runs, GT Group, is a fantastically successful business in Peterlee and I was delighted to be able to launch Export Week (left) in the North East from his premises - with Geoff leading from the front.
Imagine a BIG Tanker .... Caterpillar BIG .... Then imagine the tanks and valve work that goes onto the back- that’s what GT does. Geoff also showed me his innovation division and his new ' soft blowback ' pipework for the LPG industry, absolutely reinforcing the fact that successful exporters are inherently more innovative.
And how successful is GT Group? Answer: VERY successful. One audience member asked Geoff about his order book, and Geoff’s reply (protecting confidence) was way, way over £1M!
Thanks for the success of the launch even must also go to Graham Robb, Chair of Institute of Directors North East and senior partner at Recognition PR, who facilitated the event for UKTI, which included videos and pictures on Youtube and other networks.
Meanwhile, Joe Telford and Lesley Moody, of AES Digital Solutions, develop software, in Billingham and they are fantastically successful too! They saved one local council £150m by writing one piece of software - yes, that good. AES Digital Solutions has grown from a small acorn and its story at the close of Export Week was truly inspiring.
Lesley held the audience captive with her stories of developing business on the west coast USA (with a big plug for the UKTI West Coast team!!) and the intricacies of shipping bid documents to high profile clients during Thanksgiving Day (well done West Coast US team for saving the day!)
More than 300 delegates attended Export Week events in the region and I have no doubt those who heard of GT Group and AES Digital Solutions’ experiences will have been inspired to join the global race themselves.
And the week’s success was rounded off with the news that the UKTI North East had chalked up a record year with 900 companies having now received support, compared to 500 at the end of 2012.
But now is not the time to get complacent, nationally our aim is to reach £1trillion worth of exports by 2020 and we’ll be continuing our efforts to support the region’s firms in their exporting ambitions so that he North East can play its part in achieving economic growth.