Brighton-based Lick Frozen Yogurt – whose customers include Sainsbury’s, Waitrose and Tesco – is savouring success after clinching the top prize in a national export competition.
The business, whose dynamic export vision is making inroads into markets in the Gulf and South East Asia, wowed the judges with their plans for international business growth at Open to Export’s Action Plan Showcase Competition Final at the Going Global exhibition at London’s Olympia.
Lick Frozen Yogurt was among nine shortlisted companies who produced Export Action Plans through Open to Export’s innovative digital business planning tool. The business received prizes including 3k cash and a £4k website redesign courtesy of Yell.com.
Fellow finalists were:
- Asperato Payment
- Blossoms Syrup
- Premier Plant Hire
- Flora Harrison
- The Ingenious Air Company
- Lancaster Brewery
- Pasta Foods
- Polkadoodles
The judging panel comprised Ann Attridge, Director of Klik2Learn and previous competition winner, Lesley Batchelor OBE, Director General of the Institute of Export, Peter Hughes, Head of Procurement Support Services at Heathrow, Phil Tobin, Managing Director of Bibby Financial Services, and Julian Hucker, entrepreneur and Chairman of Open to Export.
Alexandra Hargreaves, Head of Export at Lick Frozen Yogurt, said: “We’re absolutely thrilled. The export action plan has already helped us tremendously and winning the competition will definitely accelerate our export plans.
“It was fantastic to meet – and learn from – fellow finalists and we highly recommend the Export Action Plan to help SMEs take that somewhat intimidating first step towards expanding their businesses internationally. We can’t thank Lesley and the team at Open to Export enough.”
As a founding partner of Open to Export, the IOE has played an instrumental role in supporting Open to Export’s digital Export Action Plan.
Commented Lesley Batchelor: “We were impressed, inspired and energized by the diversity, talent and global aspirations of all those shortlisted and congratulate Lick Frozen Yogurt and all the worthy finalists who gained knowledge and confidence from using Open to Export’s innovative digital business planning tool.”
Open to Export is the government funded digital platform to boost the UK’s SME exports. The Export Action Plan tool enables businesses to take ownership of their international trade strategy and make decisions along each step of their exporting journey – from selecting a market to delivering products or services to new customers.
The Export Action Plan provides support in the form of prompts, useful resources and video and once complete, produces a report summarising answers and actions in an easy to read and shareable format which is perfect for sharing with international trade advisers or banks to better inform export planning conversations.
Bibby Financial Services, Heathrow Airport and Yell sponsored the competition and all finalists received translation services from SDL Managed Translation and a year’s free membership of the Institute of Export.
For more information visit www.opentoexport.com and http://opentoexport.com/info/export-action-plan-competition/ for information and a video of a similar competition which took place in June this year.