British baked treats like Welsh cakes and crumpets are making their mark in markets worldwide thanks to The Village Bakery Wrexham.
Founded in 1934, the bakery has grown to operate six sites across North Wales, employing over 1,000 people. In recent years, branching out into new markets has spurred growth and bagged the company a coveted King’s Award for Enterprise.
Commercial controller, Glen Marriott, told Global Trade Today how Village Bakery has approached exporting and how smaller food and drink firms can too.
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Marriott says that it was a visit from the Department for Business and Trade (DBT) that opened his eyes to the company’s export potential. A delegation of DBT marketing managers were touring sites in Wales and visited the bakery one afternoon in 2023.
“A lot of them asked: ‘Why aren’t you guys exporting these products around the world? They’d would work really well in our markets’”.
That was a “light bulb moment” that led to the company to pursuing exports more seriously. Having already worked in export roles in the food and drink sector, supporting food and drink firms to export to Australia and his native New Zealand, among others, Marriott led on the brief.
Using DBT insights and embarking on their own market research, the company selected five markets they believed had potential, setting out on the “first phase” of an export programme that sees them sell to 14 countries worldwide and culminated in the team’s King’s Award-win last year.
FTAs ‘helped us immensely’
Free trade agreements (FTA) have been an invaluable part of the firm’s export strategy, Marriott says, enabling them to reach new markets at a low cost and without the hassle of the more taxing administrative demands of countries where the UK has no agreement.
“When you find out there's an FTA in place, I think automatically: ‘right, this could make my life easier’”.
The UK’s FTAs with New Zealand and Australia have been especially helpful. “We don’t have holdups at port”, he says, of fulfilling a contract to supply pancakes to a partner in Australia. Speedy processing is owed to a condition within the trade agreement stating that goods must be cleared within 48 hours.
“I’m a great advocate for [the agreement], because it's helped us immensely and I think it also gives potential customers in Australia a bit of security and peace of mind that they're not going to run into issues.
“There's no need for import permits for what we're doing, so it's all very smooth.”
Reflecting on the increased export requirements associated with selling food and drink products into the EU, Marriott jokes that “it's easier to get pancakes to Australia, than it is to get anything into France” these days.
He adds that the recently signed UK-India FTA has also prompted him to consider India as a market, despite it being a country the company had previously “been shy” of exploring. It’s now “something that we’ll look at in the future,” he says.
Where to begin?
Having cut his teeth in food and drink exporting, Global Trade Today was keen to know what advice Marriott would share with smaller firms in the sector considering exporting for the first time.
First and foremost, “don’t spread yourself too thin”, he says. “Pick your market and then do your homework upfront”.
He touts the great support he’s received from Welsh Government and DBT. Acknowledging that embarking on an export programme is a bigger undertaking for SMEs, he emphasises the need for thorough due diligence beforehand.
“When you do decide on a market, if you can, get out there and visit in person to see what's going on.”
“Consider your options before you partner with someone”, he adds, “the first distributor or customer you come across may not be the best one”.
Relationships are key
Knowing who to lean on when beginning exporting is also important. Marriott says that Village Bakery’s success is also made possible by the “good support network” the team has.
In addition to being able to turn to Welsh Government and DBT to ask for advice about any roadblocks that might arise when entering a new market, he highlights the value of a freight forwarder you can trust, “someone who can talk you through the nuances of different countries”.
For prospective exporters in the food and drink sector, having access to a good veterinarian is also invaluable when it comes to managing sanitary inspections and health certificates.
Building these relationships at the outset makes navigating the uncertainty of the first few orders and markets much easier, he says.
“It’s a bit of an adventure into the unknown to start off with, but once it's up and running, it tends to flow very smoothly.”
Marriott will be joining Chartered Institute executive editor Will Barns-Graham at the International Food & Drink Event at London’s Excel on 30 March for a discussion with other sector experts. You can secure tickets to the event here.
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