THE GREAT OUTDOORS PROVES PERFECT FOR INTERNATIONAL EXPANSION

With fewer holiday options available during the Covid-19 pandemic, many more of us embraced the great outdoors and went camping.

And with the cost of living going up, it’s likely that camping will continue its rise in popularity thanks to being a relatively cost-effective way to enjoy a holiday.

And that’s not just in the UK. Worcester-based tents and camping equipment company Olpro says that an increase in international sales enabled the business to move into its new 10,000 sq ft office headquarters earlier this year.

The company, founded by Daniel Walton in 2011, has so far sold goods to nearly 20 countries this year, and those sales represent around eight per cent of its output.

The company says it is currently prioritising growth in European to markets before expanding into the USA and Australia.

This year Olpro won The Federation of Small Business’ International Business of the Year, which follows it winning a Queen's Award for Enterprise in International Trade last year.

And all this despite a global supply chain crisis, which continues to place massive pressures on its delivery timescales due to escalating delays in the global supply of electronic component parts.

By April this year, the company had already matched its total revenue for the entire previous year.

ALS Mechatronic works with companies of all sizes, from start-ups to multi-nationals, dairies to pharmaceutical companies to help improve efficiency and production capabilities. It typically automates end-ofline, repeatable labour-intensive processes at speed by designing and building novel machinery, integrating robotics and vision inspection.

Like many companies, Covid-19 presented the company with challenges for overseas trade. At the height of the pandemic and despite the odds, an ALS Mechatronic team was able to travel to Ireland as essential workers to rescue a milk bottling facility, travelling by any means due to limited flights. The team also went to great lengths to gain North American travel ban exemptions, to allow them deliver on projects critical to local economies – from water and milk bottling plants to sanitising wipes manufacturers and fully automating and upscaling the production of pharmaceutical vials.

ALS receives more revenues from overseas than from its domestic customers. However, despite its global presence, the company plans to keep manufacturing in Gloucestershire and to build on 30 per cent additional manufacturing capacity by the end of this year.

Health supplement business doubles exports

Coventry-based Premier Health Products has doubled its global growth since 2017.

The company is a brand owner and private label specialist in the nutraceutical sector (that’s any product derived from food sources with extra health benefits).

The firm invested £3 million in a new custom-fitted 31,000 sq ft facility in Falkland Close in the city. The move also included significant investment in machinery and staff, seeing the team grow from 25 employees to 32.

Exporting today now accounts for more than 50 per cent of the company’s total sales, with sales across more than 27 countries including the Middle East, Africa and South East Asia.

Excool serves the rapidly-expanding data centre market

Excool supplies cooling equipment to the emerging and rapidly growing data centre market.

The Bromsgrove business developed as a technology and service-led company which manufactures and services large-scale energy and water-efficient cooling equipment for data centres worldwide. It developed a superior technology which uses up to 50 per cent less energy and 65 per cent less water than those comparable.

Over six years to March 2021, its overseas sales grew 740 per cent, and now makes up 70 per cent of all sales. Its main markets are Germany, Switzerland, Norway, France, and China. It has set up a division in North America and also entered into a joint venture with a Chinese partner in Beijing.