Member Article

New partnership launched by Chamber International to help UK Businesses export to North America

A second major business partnership – this time to improve how UK companies can access North American markets – has been launched by overseas trade specialist, Chamber International.

The new partnership with Resolve, a 12-strong team of export specialists, sales agents, business advisers and marketeers, based in North Yorkshire and Charlotte, North Carolina, will support growing UK interest in North America in the wake of Brexit and as harbinger to any US-UK trade deal.

The partnership follows an announcement by Chamber International this summer that it has linked up with British Centres For Business (BCB), Dubai, to help companies trade more effectively with the Middle East.

Under the latest partnership, Resolve, founded in 2006 by managing director, Mark Ashton, who has lived and worked in the US, will work alongside Chamber International, which offers a wide range of export advice, trade services and overseas networks, to provide comprehensive support to businesses targeting North America.

Resolve offers a wide spectrum of services including bespoke market research, matchmaking with partners, fund raising and export grant applications; developing export strategies, and operational and administrative support, including business incubator services.

Resolve’s main US-based business partner is honorary British consul in North Carolina, Michael Teden, who has worked in the US for almost 40 years and runs his own business providing support to UK companies in the US.

Mark Ashton, based in Skipton, says: “Chamber International is an ideal partner for us, highly professional and well-respected with a large network and database of UK companies to which they can market our North American capabilities.

“Together we can offer bespoke support services with outstanding value for money, healthy independence and objectivity, direct market access via our trusted relationships in North America and, crucially, the ability to minimise the risks and enhance the benefits.

“The US is the UK’s largest national market and we are the biggest foreign direct investor in the US economy, but most Americans have no idea that many of their household name companies are British or owned by British parent companies.

“Many UK companies have come a cropper in the US by seriously underestimating the challenges and pitfalls. The 50 states have different regulations, sales tax regimes and investment incentives. There is also a surprisingly bureaucratic federal government with a national set of agencies, regulations, tax regimes, and a complex immigration system which can cause overseas businesses major headaches.

“It makes good sense for UK companies wishing to trade there to have in-depth preparation and specialist support and we look forward to providing this alongside Chamber International.”

In the last 12 months Resolve has advised six Yorkshire-based companies on US market entry, two of which were introduced by Chamber International. Five are actively investigating the best method of entry and the sixth has already formed a partnership with a US business.

Chamber International director, Tim Bailey, says: “Our enquiries from businesses wishing to target the US are rising. The US is set to become a far more significant market post-Brexit but it is a vast and hugely complex nation.

“Regardless of any future trade deals, partnering with a like-minded, dynamic and entrepreneurial organisation such as Resolve here and in Charlotte strengthens our support and contacts considerably to help businesses approach the US with greater knowledge and reduced risks.”

Chamber International helps hundreds of new and experienced exporters throughout the UK with a wide range of specialist services to make exporting easier and more cost effective.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Mike Clarke Communications .