Technology helps region’s fast-growing firms to reach out to global marketplace

Commercial specialists at Ward Hadaway said that companies across the region are focusing on international and domestic markets. The build-up continues to the Yorkshire Fastest 50 Awards, the event highlighting the fastest growing privately owned companies in Yorkshire which Ward Hadaway sponsors and organises in association with The Yorkshire Post.

Philip Jordan, partner in the commercial team at Ward Hadaway, said Yorkshire companies continue to spread their nets far and wide.

He said: “While the pace of recovery in the UK economy may have quickened over the last 12 months, I haven’t seen companies in Yorkshire take their eye off the ball when it comes to international markets. I think they will go wherever the business is, whether that is Barnsley or Bali.”

Andrea Vero, an associate in Ward Hadaway’s commercial team, said: “Other overseas markets are coming on stream, such as the MINT (Mexico, Indonesia, Nigeria and Turkey) countries and the BRIC nations (Brazil, Russia, India and China), but it takes a bit longer for those to take off so the EU is still the key market for most exporters in this region.. “While it is rare that you will see a start-up or early stage company looking to export before it has established customers in the UK, the internet and e-commerce has meant that it is so much easier to increase your customer base further afield..companies are starting to think about exporting a lot quicker than they were, say 10 or 15 years ago, because technology has made the world a lot smaller.”

The winners of the Fastest 50 Awards will be revealed in a ceremony at Aspire Leeds on Friday March 20 featuring Steph McGovern, the business reporter for BBC Breakfast.