17:50 Friday 15th November 2013
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire
[C]HRIS MANN: It’s Export Week, a big push by the Department of Trade and Investment to boost Britain’s earnings abroad. The week’s flagship event for the East was held at Newmarket’s Rowley Mile racecourse yesterday, where about 300 firms received advice from representatives from about sixty countries overseas. Was the advice what companies needed? I asked one local businessman.
STEWART PASK: My name’s Stewart Pask. I’m Senior Sales Manager for Cambrionix. We’re a specialist electronics manufacturer in Cambridge. We specialise in multiple USB devices for charging and synching mobile devices like iPads, smartphones etcetera.
CHRIS MANN: And you’ve come here today looking for advice on where to go, which market to explore.
STEWART PASK: Yes. A lot of our business is in the education sector, and we’re looking at different countries, to see how advanced the education sector is, and looking to focus on the countries where tablets, smartphones are used in the education sector.
CHRIS MANN: Got an answer?
STEWART PASK: A few countries at the moment. Yes. A few surprises to be honest, in terms of some countries being further behind than we thought. But some places to focus on, definitely.
CHRIS MANN: So how key is that information to the future of your business?
STEWART PASK: It’s very key really, because we don’t want to waste energy. We’re quite a small firm, so we don’t want to waste energy on sectors where we’ll be banging our head against the door.
CHRIS MANN: And what other things have you been asking the DTI today?
STEWART PASK: We’ve been looking for specific events in those countries that we can attend. Look at the market in more detail. And really just the use of technology within those countries, and how advanced they are.
CHRIS MANN: How confident are you about the future of the business, particularly with a view to exports?
STEWART PASK: Well a lot of our business is export already. We’re very confident that we can .. we’re still a growing company , so we’re very confident that by reaching new countries we’ll be able to expand the business.
CHRIS MANN: Worth coming here today?
STEWART PASK: Yes, definitely.
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