Leigh's Paints
Bolton company Leighs Paints - manufacturer and supplier of a wide range of industrial and fire protection coatings - has won the prestigious Greater Manchester Passport to Export Award 2008, organised by UK Trade & Investment (UKTI).
The award is one of five county accolades given to celebrate the overseas success achieved by North West companies following participation in the UKTI Passport to Export Programme.
Leighs Paints is the UK's leading independent manufacturer of high performance coatings. An established family owned business, since 1860, Leighs Paints operate on a global basis serving a variety of demanding markets. It signed up to Passport to Export in 2006, and since then the company - which previously exported on a ‘reactive' basis, responding to incoming orders - has evolved into a truly internationally minded operation.
Leighs Paints has worked closely with their International Trade Adviser Charles Jacobson and utilized the help on the Passport programme, as well as further UKTI support and help with research and communications, to develop comprehensive and thoroughly researched entry strategies for traditionally difficult markets like Germany and Canada.
Leighs Paints Sales and Marketing Director, Paul Clayton, comments:
"The opportunities for Leighs Paints internationally are huge, with the company building on current successes to provide coating solutions in various international markets.
"As well as the Passport to Export programme, we have participated in trade missions with help from UKTI funding, undergone an Export Communications Review which has led to us developing a website for the German market, and commissioned Overseas Market Introduction Service (OMIS) reports to help with research and introductions into key markets.
"The company is also working with UKTI's Strategic Alliance Service (SAS) on plans to develop potential partnership opportunities.. The Passport to Export programme and the subsequent work we have done with UKTI has helped us develop a real understanding of trade prospects in individual countries and we would recommend other companies, hoping to maximise their export potential to get in touch with UKTI to see how they can help."
Clive Drinkwater, UK Trade & Investment's International Trade Director for the North West, adds,
"Leighs Paints is a worthy winner of the Passport to Export Award 2008, and shows how, with determination and the right help, a company can go from being passive exporters, responding to occasional demand, to a highly focussed global operation, able to take advantage of the many opportunities that international markets offer to North West businesses.