Barrow-in-Furness to host business export workshop

Businesses of all sizes based in north Lancashire and Barrow-in-Furness are being invited to take part in a defence and security workshop next month.

Real Help Now is a joint venture between Furness Enterprise, UK Trade & Investment and the Ministry of Defence.

The event will detail what advice, information and support is available from the UK Government's UKTI defence and security organisation.

Organisers have said the event should have wide appeal to companies seeking to win defence and security business overseas using their bespoke or commercial off the shelf products and services.

A team led by Howard Gibbs, the UKTI, Ministry of Defence and British Army specialists, Major 'Dins' Rusdale and Captain Tom Devaney will be offering advice and practical help.

The UKTI and Ministry of Defence teams will help firms:

• Identify the main countries and export opportunities available and highlight market trends
• Access free, grant aided and subsidised discretionary help to exploit potential markets

They will also help firms learn about and apply for assistance on offer through UKTI's defence and security discretionary service such as:

• One to one support, grants for first time exporters
• Bespoke research undertaken for firms by MoD and UK Embassy staff delivering overseas market segment overviews
• Help to facilitate communication with overseas customers and grants to attend trade shows, training and workshops as part of the assistance

Commenting on the event, Stuart Klosinski of Furness Enterprise, said: "This area has a good track record in delivering exports to the Far East, Spain and other countries, joint ventures have also been developed with American firms to enable USA technology to be transferred into the area. We are looking to build on this potential by bringing this Whitehall based team of experts to the area to enable firms to use their expertise to open doors to new opportunities. UKTI's Cumbria-based Peter Gawne Cain will be assisting us".

The Real Help Now event is taking place on Wednesday 15 July at the Waterside House Business and Conference Hub in Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria.