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Export Sales Increased by 43%

Access panel manufacturer Howe Green worked with the University of Hertfordshire to create a strategic business model to evaluate and gain entry to international markets.

By taking advantage of the Knowledge Transfer Partnership initiative, the floor, wall and ceiling panel supplier was able to launch themselves into international markets with lucrative results.

"We have all learnt a lot during this project, and now also have a very useable formal structure to base all our future foreign market development on".

Richard Centa Director of Howe Green Limited

Business challenge

Howe Green supply panels to cover building services such as drainage, power and data or plumbing valves for commercial projects such as: railway stations, shopping centres, airports and schools.

Using sophisticated computer-aided design and computer-aided manufacturing (CAD/CAM), all products are made to order to suit customer's requirements.

Although well known to UK specifiers, the company wanted to improve export sales after receiving occasional interest from abroad. The equivalent wholesaler/distributor channels in different countries were unknown. They needed a model to understand how business is done per country and in different cultural climates.

How did the University of Hertfordshire help?

The grant-financed Knowledge Transfer Partnership scheme provides a three-way collaboration between the business, the University and a highly talented graduate, Associate. Backed by the knowledge and skills of the university, the graduate provided the additional resource to enable Howe Green to research existing markets and formalise an approach to export marketing.

A Strategic Business Modelling Process for assessing international markets and selecting and managing collaborative distribution networks was then produced.

By embedding the processes within the company senior management team the model was applied to selected new priority countries and enabled new collaborative partner agreements to realise new revenue.

Staff were trained through interactive workshops and an International Marketing Handbook was produced by the KTP Associate, to enable them to follow the process in the future.

Real business results

Howe Green is now able to:

Select foreign markets by using research information from previously unknown resources.
Select market entry modes by using its new model.
Find new international partners.

Application of these processes increased export sales by 43% by the end of the project.