Consultancy
Examples of our work, recent projects and clients we have worked with.
Trade Partners (UK) Export support for the clothing
industry
Trade Partners UK offers support to British companies exhibiting at trade fairs. The rules under which this support is offered are currently relaxed in relation to firms in the clothing, textile and footwear industries. We were commissioned to consider the export marketing strategies of firms in the sector and to make recommendations in relation to the continuing support offered by Trade Partners UK.
Project objectives
The objectives of this project are to study the routes to overseas markets and marketing practices of UK businesses in the clothing, textile and footwear industries and to make recommendations on how Trade Partners UK might best support companies.
In particular, the study addresses the following questions:
- What export activities are undertaken by clothing and textiles companies?
- Which are considered the most important?
- Does this pattern of activity differ depending upon the firm's objectives (e.g. promoting new products, entering new markets, or developing its market position)?
- What is achieved by exhibiting at trade fairs?
- Which activities are considered most successful?
- Which of these are considered most cost effective?
- What are the most important of the other routes to market?
- What types of support have companies received and what would they like to receive?
- Why have some firms decided to stop exporting?
- We also considered whether the results of the survey and consultation suggest other types of support that might be provided.
Method
The study surveyed exporting companies in the UK, Germany and Italy using an identical questionnaire. In the UK 599 interviews were carried out with exporting companies. Two groups of companies were surveyed of which clothing textiles and footwear (CTF) made up approximately 75% and businesses in cutlery, furniture, cosmetics and ceramics (Non-CTF) were used as a control and made up around 25% of responses. In Germany and Italy 50 sector companies were surveyed from each country.
Three focus groups have been conducted along with a number of in-depth interviews by telephone and face to face with sector companies and support organisations in order to consult with the industry and provide further detail and colour to the survey analysis.
The graph below shows an example of the results from this study.
Graph 1: The relative use of the three most important export related activities.
[Source: Trends Business Research for Trade Partners UK]
The graph shows the relative importance of overseas agents to the German and Italian companies. For German and Italian clothing and textiles companies using overseas agents is the most important activity, while for UK companies it is the third most important.
TBR was subsequently commissioned to prepare an Evaluation of the SME Market for Trade Partners UK to help identify companies for "Your Passport to Export Success" Programme.
