adminA thriving Black Country craft brewery is hoping to raise a glass to future exporting success after taking part in a Government-backed exploratory trip to Latvia.
Award-winning Sadler’s Ales is setting its sights firmly on the overseas market for 2016 and aims to appoint a sales distributor and establish sales across the Baltic states and Scandinavia following a three-day Export Insight Visit (EIV) with UK Trade and Investment (UKTI).
The company joined a group of 21 small and micro companies on a delegation to Riga, Latvia, to see what opportunity there was to grow their business overseas.
Ian King, sales director of the Lye-based brewer, said he hoped the visit would be the catalyst for the company to become a pro-active exporter. The decision to look at the overseas market comes just eight months after it was asked by the Polish Chamber of Commerce to sell some of its ales in Poland.
As part of the Latvia visit, he and Sadler’s Ales’ managing director Christopher Sadler were able to exhibit their wares to Baltic supermarket chain Rimi and to high-end Finnish department store Stockmann, including giving buyers a sample taste of their local ales.
Ian said: “Next year we hope to start exporting and we used this UKTI visit as a fact-finding mission to see what help we could get, make contact with distributors and use what we learned as a basis for overseas trading in 2016.
“We’ve made some excellent trade contacts and we are following these up now. I couldn’t recommend an Export Insight Visit enough; it’s a must for anyone exporting or thinking of export.”
Christine Hamilton, acting regional director of UK Trade and Investment West Midlands (UKTI), said that this was the third year West Midlands companies had been able to explore the possibilities of exporting on such a trip, which is vital to help small organisations see the huge opportunity and support available to them.
She said “The early indications that Sadler’s Ales is already gaining interest from Latvia and Scandinavia is very encouraging and illustrate just what can be achieved on Export Insight Visits.
“These visits offer companies the opportunity to get in front of the right people in a new market and start the ball rolling when it comes to start exporting.
The next Export Insight Visits to take place are: January 18-20 in Lisbon and Madrid; and The Hague on February 16-18.
