Good news for Scottish exporters

Here at Cloburn, a major part of our business come from export, and we like to think that we’re a small part of the reason for the upturn in Scottish exports in recent years!  The Scottish Government has announced an ambitious target of increasing the value of Scottish exports by 50 per cent on 2011 levels to reach £33 billion by 2017, so export is a big subject for businesses at the moment.

We were interested to hear about the debate about how to encourage Scottish manufacturers to export more of their goods.  A review, which was published by the UK government, has recommended creating a signpost agency to all the advice and guidance needed, which would help companies who wanted to export their goods get easy and accurate access to the advice and support they need.

It’s always easier when the different agencies involved in a process like exports can work together, so on the face of it, this seems like a good idea.

One of the conclusions was that all agencies offering support to exporters really needed to sort themselves out and collaborate better, in order to give the companies who wanted to export their goods  a better service, and said that a ‘clear and comprehensible’ framework was needed, to give companies clear guidelines and better structure.

So, what’s the problem with the existing system? The fact that Scotland’s export market is doing so well would seem to show that we’re managing pretty well without any new government initiatives, but there is a lot of red tape involved and it can be daunting for new businesses trying to navigate all the regulations.

Brian Wilson, Chairman of Harris Tweed Hebrides (and UK business ambassador ) said that he thought the present system was too fragmented and that many companies were confused about who they needed to ask for advice on how to go about selling their products to an international market.  He suggested a brand new collaboration, called Scottish Exports, which would be the first port of call for anyone who wanted to export
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This ‘front door’ to advice would be a  partnership between Scottish Development International, UK Trade and Investment and the private sector, and it would be set up to make sure that companies were signposted to the right agency for their particular needs, which would avoid time wasting enquiries and unnecessary confusion.

What do you think? Would yet another agency just confuse things even more, or is it a good idea to have one place to go, which can then refer you on to someone else – the right agency - if necessary?

World Cup Fever!

It’s FIFA World Cup time - starting next week, and even though we didn't qualify this time around, we'll still be glued to it.

There have been a lot of stories in the media about the construction work on the stadiums for the games, in fact some reports are still saying that it’s not going to be ready for the big opening game on 12th June, but we’re sure that they’ll pull it out of the bag and surprise us all. Even if just last month, construction company Odebrecht were on record as saying that the roof at the Itaquerao stadium will only be completed after the World Cup. Oops.

According to reports, the pitches are looking good anyway, even though so far they’ve only had to stand up to kick-about matches between construction workers. Time will tell; we’ll be watching as many games as we can. We would have loved to have been chosen as a supplier for the pitch material, although that might have been a bit of a long shot for such a massive International event.

Our Red Granite Cresta™ is really popular with organisations building sports facilities, as it’s great for running tracks, tennis courts (it’ll be Wimbledon soon, too) and of course, football pitches. Back in the old days, the Scottish solution for football pitches was a type of colliery waste called blaes, but technology has moved on and we’ve produced a professional product which unlike its predecessor, won’t turn into mud when it rains!

Cloburn Red Granite Cresta™ is produced from hardy, super-strong granite that’s designed to withstand the wear and tear of tough sporting events, and another bonus is that it needs hardly any maintenance at all, except some occasional rolling, so you don’t have to make sure that it’s still useable after another bout of terrible weather. It’s cost-effective, making it another good choice especially for local authorities and schools, and of course it has the striking natural red colouring that improves over time, which we think adds a real touch of class to any surface. We think it would have looked fabulous in Brazil, but never mind.

Enjoy the football!