Classy conservatories go European

With a little help from UK Trade & Investment, a York business is entering overseas markets with its stylish range of conservatories that can just as easily grace a beautiful home as add a distinguished touch to commercial properties.

When managing director, Richard Kent recently took over Aurora Conservatories based in Naburn, he made it his mission to turn the business into an international concern.

The company already had a strong national reputation for using traditional journeyman skills to produce handmade products made from quality hardwood timber so that Kent had a solid foundation on which to begin building up overseas business.

Aurora is now selling into Sweden and Austria, and it all began with UKTI’s Passport to Export programme.

Richard said: “UKTI’s Passport programme was a fantastic kick-start to beginning our overseas business. It was like a foundation course in exporting, flagging up some of the pitfalls to watch out for. It was also tremendously helpful in giving us guidelines as to how to go about identifying and then managing distributors and agents overseas. I have to say that I also found the programme useful with regard to business in the UK market as well.”

Richard added: “The overseas business has taken two years to work up and is now paying dividends but we couldn’t have done it without the services and contacts of UKTI. Peter Tweddle, the international trade adviser, at York and North Yorkshire Business Link (YNYBL) has been an invaluable external adviser to us. He identified Yorkshire Forward funding that helped us get to a gardening exhibition in Austria, and through the British Embassy there, we met the Austrian equivalent of Alan Titchmarsh. He’s quite a character and he was so impressed with our conservatories that he got us into the Austrian Gardener’s World and as a result of this high profile publicity we soon found a distributor over there.”       

Peter Tweddle also pinpointed further Yorkshire Forward funding for the company to attend the ‘GLEE’ Garden and Leisure Exhibition tradeshow, one of the largest international outdoor and gardening exhibitions held at Birmingham’s National Exhibition Centre earlier this year.

Peter commented: “Getting to the right exhibitions and tradeshows can be crucial when trying to build up an international profile. It’s a chance to put your company on the international radar as well as get you up to speed with what else is new in your sector and what the competition looks like. Yorkshire Forward’s Targeted Export Support Scheme (TESS) funding helped make sure Aurora not only got to the exhibition, but they also made contact with a Swedish company who have turned out to be a business partner.”

Aurora has also benefitted from other export and communication services provided locally by UKTI, such as market screening, which allows companies to get a clearer idea of where in the world their products or services are most likely to find a market.

Richard said: “I discovered another source of useful contacts when I began attending the International Business Network (IBN) events organized by UKTI in the region. It’s always interesting to listen to the range of speakers the events offer, but the time spent just networking with other local companies can turn up some valuable contacts for future business.” 

Now with the winning combination of a quality product backed up by the export support services of UKTI, Aurora Conservatories is set to become a key player on the international business stage.

Contact:  Aurora Conservatories, Richard Kent, MD Tel: 01904 6311234 or richard_kent@btconnect.com

UKTI contact: Peter Tweddle, Tel: 07720 072872 or 01904 656769 or peter.tweddle@blyny.co.uk