Summary
Whether you're selling breakfast cereals, criminal tags or excavator buckets, expanding your business overseas can be a game changer. But when's the right time to export and which countries should you target? Evan Davis and guests discuss the ups and downs of trading internationally. They'll share their stories on why it can be easier to sell abroad than at home, how to adapt products for a new market and why doing your homework can ensure that nothing is lost in translation. Top tips on how to make exporting a business boost not a foreign flop.
Guests:
Sara Murray, Founder and CEO, Buddi
Giles Turrell, CEO, Weetabix
Jacqui Miller, Director, Miller International.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Thank you for downloading this programme. In this edition of the bottom line, we're going global. |
| 0:05.6 | Evan Davis and guests discuss the ups and downs of trading overseas. |
| 0:11.1 | Hello and welcome to the programme. Now, if there's one thing this country needs to do more of, |
| 0:15.9 | and this is no state secret, it is to export. For one reason or another, the UK always seems to live |
| 0:21.9 | slightly beyond its means, buying more from abroad than it sells. So what makes it so hard to |
| 0:27.3 | export? We are, of course, home to the operations of big international businesses, British |
| 0:32.4 | firms like Rolls-Royce and foreign firms like Nissan, and they certainly do their bit for the balance of payments. |
| 0:38.7 | But for smaller and medium-sized companies, expanding abroad offers many challenges, cultural, |
| 0:44.1 | linguistic, legal, technical, and nobody tries it without meeting some of the wrong people |
| 0:49.2 | or making some awful mistakes. So today, let's see what it takes to succeed overseas. I have three |
| 0:55.8 | battle-scarred exporters with me and let's meet them now. And first up is Giles Turrell, who's the |
| 1:01.2 | chief executive, of Wheatabix. It's a household name. Giles, just give us a little history of the company. |
| 1:07.0 | Well, the company's been going since 1932 and now we export over 80 markets around the world. |
| 1:13.2 | We also have operations in Canada and the US, as well as joint ventures in Africa, |
| 1:19.3 | and now we're getting into China through our partnership with one of our investors. |
| 1:23.8 | You were owned by a private equity company who sold a good deal of Wheatabix to a Chinese food manufacturer. |
| 1:29.3 | Absolutely. To Bright Food International. There are a Chinese conglomerate that are in many, many different industries, and they invested in our business. And it's through them that we're trying to get into China and starting exporting the business there. |
| 1:43.0 | We will talk more about that. But in terms of your daily operations, you're not run by them. You are in control of Wheatabix. Yes, we are. The management team run the business. They're investors. And we're based in Northamptonshire. And we're proud of our UK routes. We should just talk about the brands. Weatabix is obviously the one everybody knows. |
| 2:06.5 | We make Alpin, RediBek, Wheatose. In the US, we have a brand called Barbara's. But it's Weeterpix that most people know. Okay, Giles, thank you very much. Well, my second guest is Sarah |
| 2:11.6 | Murray, who's the founder and chief executive of a company called Buddy. It's a GPS tracking device. |
| 2:17.6 | And the products are, Sarah. |
| 2:20.0 | We make technology to show where people are and how they are. |
... |
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