Consulate Reception in New Zealand for Yorkshire-based Consulting firm

CMA Group (Consulting) Ltd approached UKTI to help them develop an export strategy to expand their business into New Zealand, with help from the British Embassy overseas.

Established in 2003, CMA Group (Consulting) Ltd is a small, growing company, with eight employees in the UK and a Head office in York. Despite their size, they have an extremely strong track-record in delivering major change and transformation programmes within the UK’s NHS.

In the last 2 years, CMA’s horizons have begun to widen, with the New Zealand market clearly in sight. Selected through a combination of personal interests and business opportunity, New Zealand was the perfect choice to enter the international market. With clear synergies between their health service and the UK, a smaller population and subsequently smaller system the market is well suited to the services provided by CMA.

CMA’s Group Business Manager Pernilla Tweddle had worked with UKTI in previous employment, and so the decision to contact them when tasked with coordinating UK and New Zealand contacts was easy when Pernilla realised they needed some funding and support.

It seems the journey into export was fairly plain sailing for CMA, Pernilla found that UKTI were very receptive to their ideas and CMA was very quickly put on UKTI’s Passport to Export Programme in March 2011. Through this scheme they qualified for a range of support including match funding (for travel and accommodation etc) and also funding for the Overseas Market Introduction Service (OMIS) carried out by the High Commission.

After attending a Passport to Export workshop in March 2012 and comparing their situation with others attending the session it was apparent to CMA that they had overcome many obstacles already. With professional services rather than a bulky product to sell and ship, logistical and manufacturing issues were of no concern to CMA and they could focus on the finance implications and the networks required for exporting their services.

A number of outcomes of the Export Communication Review, which focussed on CMA’s readiness in terms of marketing and communications for export, also “we found them very valuable both for overseas export and current business astuteness in the UK”.

A key piece of advice was to make the most of any international events; so when Pernilla informed her International Trade Advisor that CMA had been invited to be a key note speaker at the New Zealand Ministry of Health General Practice Conference in Auckland, things went into “action mode” very quickly. Funding was split between market research (OMIS) and finance to support CMA’s own event in New Zealand within the same trip as the General Practice Conference; thereby capitalising on the potential contacts made at the conference and making the most of their visit overseas.

“We were very quickly and efficiently put in direct contact with the Trade Development Manager (UK Trade & Investment) at the British Consulate-General in Wellington who we liaised with throughout the entire OMIS programme”.

Read the full case study of how UKTI helped CMA - Group (Consulting) Ltd.

Contacts

If you are based in the Yorkshire and Humber region and are interested in developing your business overseas please contact:

UKTI Yorkshire

Tel: 0300 365 1000

Email info@uktiyorkshire.co.uk

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