EXPORT AND INTERNATIONAL GROWTH
The most common failure in export is a strong product entering the wrong market at the wrong stage.
Proven Professionals connects UK food and drink businesses with senior professionals who have opened and managed export markets.
Support is available on a project, fractional, interim or advisory basis.
Discuss your challengeMARKET SELECTION
Choosing markets on evidence: demand, competition, regulation and cost to serve.
PARTNERS AND ROUTES
Distributors, importers and direct retail, and the terms that protect the business.
SUSTAINING THE MARKET
Pricing, support and management of a market from a distance.
Enquiries are arriving from overseas, and the business is deciding which to pursue. Each looks attractive alone. Together they exceed what the business can support.
A distributor has been appointed, and sales have stalled after the first order. The product reached the market. It has not been sold through.
Export is in the growth plan, and no one in the business has done it before.
Market selection. A short list of markets assessed on demand, competition, labelling and regulatory requirements, and the price the product would reach on shelf.
Partner and route decisions. Identifying and assessing distributors, agreeing terms and exclusivity, and deciding where direct supply is the better route.
Market management. Price structures by market, promotional support, and the reporting needed to manage a partner the business rarely sees.
The requirement is established first: the markets under consideration, the commitment available and the experience already in the business.
A senior professional with direct export experience is then proposed. The scope is agreed before any work begins.
By evidence, not by enquiry. The useful tests are whether there is demand for the category, whether the product can reach the shelf at a competitive price after duty and distribution margin, whether labelling and regulatory requirements can be met, and whether the business can support the market.
Usually. A distributor or importer handles import, storage, sales and local compliance. The choice of partner and the terms agreed with them matter more than the choice of market.
The first order fills the distributor's warehouse. Repeat orders depend on sales to retailers and consumers, which need pricing, promotion and attention the first order did not test.
Discuss your challengeThe Commercial Diagnostic is a written review of a food or drink business across five commercial areas, scored by a senior professional. £950, delivered in five working days.
See the Commercial Diagnostic