'˜Potential of exporting massive to patient and capable firms'

Andrew Joy, a director for international banking with Santander in Yorkshire told business leaders that Britain’s reputation as a maker of choice products made it a powerful draw for foreign markets and said he did not anticipate this would change after Brexit.

Mr Joy was speaking alongside a panel of export experts at the latest Innovation Network event, run by Leeds Beckett University in conjunction with The Yorkshire Post.

He said: “The reason you should look at exporting is as percentage of the world population we are about one per cent in our homeland.

“While of that remaining 99 per cent may be places you wouldn’t want to go to there are some good markets there for you.

“British products are very highly sought after. People like ‘Made in Britain’, be it food and drink, be it engineering, be it in fashion - we are market leaders in a lot of fields.”

“But exporting is not something you just dabble with. If your strategy is world domination you are not heading in the right direction. But one sale is a great step .

“Although we are heading for Brexit we do trade in Europe and I am sure we will continue to trade in Europe, simply because of nothing else the Germans sell more cars into Britain than into anywhere else and they are not going to want to damage that.”

Mr Joy also advised businesses to ensure their intellectual property and payment corridors were protected.

“Don’t overstretch yourself and keep your promises. You’re going to have to give it months rather than weeks. But don’t give up. Exporting is exciting, it is lucrative, it is potentially game changing for a business.

“However the business that you do now on a day-to-day is what pays the bills now. Please keep you eye on this and don’t let that drift.”

Ian Harris, chief executive of Leeds-based Search Laboratory said, that selecting the relevant key words in different languages was crucial to generating enquiries and developing sales.

He used the example of using the expression “did you know?” before listing a series of benefits of a product. While fine for English speaking nations, when translated into French it comes across as the more negative and insulting “didn’t you know?”.

He said: “The UK actually leads the world in terms of the proportion of trade that is performed online.

“We have got so much going for us in the UK. People like using credit cards, there is a good postage system and we have got good internet penetration.”

The event also heard from Andrew Marran from Leeds Beckett University and Nozar Alikhanizadeh of Kavendor.