Supporting Export Growth

GWE Business West Ltd (Business West) is seeking to appoint a provider that can support selected small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) who operate from the South West of England to enter the market in China, Latin America, India or South East Asia and export goods or services.

Business West has secured funding for a new ERDF project titled locally as Export for Growth. A core component of the Export for Growth project is a new programme of support titled Extend your Global Reach, which is aimed at experienced SME exporters who have an innovative and quality export product, who with the right support can potentially compete and enter a high growth overseas market.

Business West invite proposals for the delivery of International Business Support to eligible SMEs in the South West of England to develop international trade opportunities in China, Latin America, India or South East Asia.

The programme will provide intensive commercialisation support to accelerate the market entry process that will enable beneficiary SMEs to successfully export to customers in China, Latin America, India or South East Asia. Each beneficiary SME to receive up to 12 days commercialisation consultancy and support (a day is equivalent to 7 hours), this does not include any travel time.

The programme is targeted at SME’s who design, manufacture, market, sell and distribute products and/or services from the South West of England that offer an innovative, high quality product of service that represents excellence to match the buying trends and commercial viability of UK products/services that have high demand and can compete in China, Latin America, India or South East Asia.

We are seeking in-country support from a professional organisation with the skills, experience, local knowledge and connections to work with selected SMEs on in-market consumer research, market readiness preparation and planning, market entry strategy and planning, risk assessment, and in-territory marketing and sales support.

The maximum budget for this support is £897,000 with £246,000 being allocated to the China activity, £246,000 for Latin America activity, £184,000 for India and £221,000 for South East Asia with the contract covering a 2 year period. The opportunity will be divided in to four lots and tenders can be submitted for one or more lots

The successful service delivery partner will have deep insight and broad knowledge of these markets, relevant expertise, resources, with local connections and contacts in these markets to be able to deliver value added support to beneficiary SMEs to help win export sales.

We welcome applicants to submit a tender, details of which can be found on our website: http://www.businesswest.co.uk/about/tenders