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North West stars of China recognised

Love Creative, Brock Carmichael Architects and Byotrol PLC were all recognised by UK Trade & Investment (UKTI) at the Greater China Awards 2013 on Friday.

Manchester-based digital agency, Love Creative, was named as the Greater China Rising Star after just three years in the Chinese market, after it opened a Wholly Foreign-Owned Enterprise (WFOE) in Shanghai.

Brock Carmichael Architects from Liverpool were runners up for the award, followed closely by Daresbury-based Byotrol PLC.

UKTI’s Greater China Awards included businesses that have ventured into mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

Brock Carmichael works alongside architectural practice Oval Partnership in Hong Kong on a joint-venture brand called Octagon Partnership, which allows both companies to bid for larger contracts.

Byotrol PLC has also formed an international partnership with Chinese firm, Sunon, to launch pet grooming and hygiene products under the name of Carexpro.

This new brand is expected to take a 15% market share in China and Hong Kong by the end of 2013 after only launching in June last year.

Clive Drinkwater, regional director for UKTI’s North West division, said: “China remains a vitally important market for the region.

“North West exports to China were nearly £1.2 billion in the first three quarters of 2012 – over 11% up on the same period in 2011 and higher than the whole year’s exports in 2010.

“This means that we are on target to beat the current record of £1.5 billion in 2011, and if we add in the figures for Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan it is likely that we will break the £2 billion mark for exports to Greater China for the first time ever.”

China is now in the North West’s top five export markets, a claim that only one other region (the West Midlands) can make in the UK.

Philomena Chen, head of Asia Pacific development for UK Trade & Investment North West, commented: “There was an outstanding level of entries for this year’s Rising Star Award, and the winners are the companies who have showed the most evidence of a commitment to the market and who have successfully expanded their business in mainland China, Hong Kong or Taiwan.

“Our winner, Love Creative, is growing strongly across a wide variety of sectors and has clearly embraced the importance of a local presence in the market with the Shanghai office.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Miranda Dobson .