Scottish textile companies weave new business in Far East

The new strategy, supported by Scottish Development International (SDI) focuses on working closely with key influencers and retailers in the Far East to help open up opportunities for companies in Scotland.

Already proving successful, the new approach has helped deliver initiatives such as a Scottish Fair at the Hankyu Department Store in November which saw £540,000 of sales for the Scottish companies involved, and in December, six companies successfully showcased their products on a Japanese shopping channel, Jupiter Shop Channel, which saw the companies achieve a combined sale of £742,000.

Edinburgh-based Ness, was overwhelmed by the success of its trip to Japan to feature its products in the Jupiter Shop Channel. The company sold out most of its products resulting in £133,000 worth of sales.

Ness managing director, Gordon MacAulay said: “Although we are an established business in the UK, we are new to exporting and have only recently begun to tap into international opportunities. Working with SDI, we have become acutely aware of the significant growth opportunities available in the Far East and the potential strong fit for our products there. This was confirmed on our recent visit to Japan where we had a fantastic response to our ranges from both consumers and the trade.

“Through SDI we have been able to tap into contacts in the Japanese market who were able to give us advice on what age group to target, based on price and style. In the UK our target age group is 32 but in Japan we were advised to target our products at 25 year olds – it’s little nuggets of information like this that really makes the difference.”

SDI country head in Japan, Stephen Baker, said: “Ness is a great example of a company which is seeing real growth as a result of its exporting activities.

“We’ve been working closely with key influencers in Japan to understand more about how we can open up even more opportunities for Scottish companies and we’re already seeing success with Scottish textile companies such as Johnstons of Elgin, Mackintosh, Hawick Cashmere of Scotland and BEGG-Scotland which have been trading in Japan for a number of years.

“To succeed, Scottish textile companies have to play to their strengths – unique heritage, high quality diversity and design, refined craftsmanship and home to the finest fabrics in the world – these strengths will help us meet our ambitious exporting target of 50 per cent by 2017.“

Ness is an ambitious growing Scottish textiles company and recently began working closely with SDI as part of an accelerated export development programme to deliver its long-term growth ambitions. The company aims to increase its exporting activities from a low base to at least 15% of total turnover by 2015.

To hear more Scottish export success stories or to find out how SE, HIE & SDI can help with your international trade and investment plans, visit www.sdi.co.uk/export or follow the news using #scottishexports.