CONTACT - Guernsey Chamber of Commerce

Sector UpDate | Export
Sector Update:
export industry
Can Britain overcome its psychological barrier to exporting or
has the recession taken its toll? Richard Tyler reports on behalf
of the British Chambers of Commerce.
The latest official
statistics indicate
that the number
of exporters of
physical goods in
the UK in the
second quarter
fell by almost 2%.
the recession has taken its toll on
Britain’s export base with official
figures showing a 2% decline
in the number of companies
shipping goods overseas in the last year.
But with the pound losing value against
the dollar and the euro in recent times,
British made goods and services have
become more price competitive.
Some experts believe that what is stopping
businesses from creating foreign language
versions of their websites, or jumping on the
plane to far flung trade fairs, is that Britain
has lost its confidence as a trading nation.
David Frost, director general of the British
chambers of commerce, an organisation
that helps thousands of businesses to secure
overseas orders each year, said business needs
to ‘rediscover the mercantile spirit that has
driven our wealth in the past and now drives
other, younger industrial economies.’
HSBc’s UK head of commercial banking
Noel Quinn thinks the loss of confidence
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is holding some business owners’ back.
‘there’s a psychological barrier. But the
benefits [of exporting] far outweigh the
costs when you start to do it,’ he said.
The Government agrees.
‘it’s about having the confidence to take your
product international and have the confidence
to visualise yourself doing business outside the
UK,’ said trade Minister lord Davies as he
stood outside the fitting sheds of a small
company called Southampton Yacht Services,
which exports the vast majority of the new
yachts it builds.
the British chambers of commerce (Bcc)
polled almost 3,500 companies in april
about their attitudes to exporting. Some
11% of those surveyed were thinking of
exporting; 31% were already doing so; and
14% were not trading but had in the past.
the survey found that the main reason
why companies export is because they are
approached by a customer or an agent. the main