Key questions to ask at your US Market Advisor meeting

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Ireland would fit into the US 130 times over and as you probably know there are cultural differences between the north and south, as well as the east and west coasts. For this reason, it’s important not to treat the US as one market, instead view it as 50 markets with four time zones. 

You should keep the following questions front of mind when having your first meeting with our dedicated team. 

  • What is the awareness of Ireland in this state?
  • What are the core sectors and what sectors should I avoid in this state?
  • Will I need a local partner company?
  • What kind of obstacles should I expect when entering the market in this state?
  • What local competitors are active in this market?
  • What taxes, charges or hidden costs should I be aware of?
  • Are there any social/political instabilities in this state that could affect my business here?
  • Are there any environmental instabilities in this state that could affect my business here?
  • What social norms should I be cognizant of when engaging in meetings with local people?
  • Will I need to set up an office in the state?
  • Will I need to hire local staff?
  • Can I relocate Irish staff in this region?

Set up a call with our team in the US today 

For more be sure to check out our Going Global Guide 

Enterprise Ireland’s top tips for entering the US market can be viewed by clicking the graphic below.

Enterprise Ireland’s top tips for entering the Dutch market

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The Netherlands is active worldwide in providing creative and sustainable solutions for global challenges relating to water, food, energy, health, environment, and security, this thriving economy welcomes foreign business and is a great starting point for clients who wish to enter the Eurozone.

If you are considering doing business in the Netherlands, please be sure to explore our tips to enter the market below and also be sure to reach out to our dedicated team.

  • Dutch is the national language of the Netherlands, but they are very open to conversing in English, with 90% of the population speaking it. Although a translator may not be crucial at first, it is considered a sign of good intent to have local people and services involved on the ground.
  • In Dutch business culture, meetings are important and famous for their traditional ‘Afspraken’, (crucial discussion opportunities.) The Netherlands has led the shift towards remote working long before the Pandemic, and are well prepared for digital meetings, something that is of increasing importance in today’s age. Come dressed relatively formally and you’ll fit right in.
  • The Dutch are masters in logistics, and home to world-class seaports, airports, and railway systems. You also have access to 170 million consumers at your fingertips, and not only that, NL is ranked no.1 in the world in digital connectivity, something that should be embraced.
  • Decide on a route to market: Joint ventures and acquisitions can be a successful route to market in the Netherlands, gaining you a foothold and bringing on board established contacts and market knowledge.
  • Like Ireland, the Netherlands relies heavily on exports. As a result, they are naturally more open to international trade, making it very possible to sell directly. That being said, export strategies that include a local partner are usually more successful and foster a consistent presence.
  • Trust the Process and embrace the economic and cultural benefits that the Netherlands has to offer. A global pioneer in several markets this is an ideal location to step into Europe.
  • Understand that sustainability is key: At present, the Corporate Tax rate is 20% on the taxable amount up to €200,000 and 25% on excess, worldwide. The environment is important to the Dutch, and reliefs are provided for companies who value sustainability.
  • Be prepared and know your competition: It is important to do your market research. This is a highly competitive landscape, with 15,000 foreign companies competing in a country smaller than Ireland. Luckily, our world-class Market Research Centre can assist you with valuable market intelligence to help shape your strategy.
  • Be innovative: in the Netherlands, it is important to be forward-thinking and competitive. Make sure you have a strong value proposition and stand out from the rest.
  • Finally, do your research! Explore the different resources available from Enterprise Ireland to delve deep into the market and really understand the opportunities and challenges that will arise. Our world-class Market Research Centre provides countless market reports, and MA’s are happy to help with market-related requests.

For more be sure to check out our Going Global Guide 

If you would like to know what to prepare ahead of your first MA call, click the graphic below

Consumer in Asia

Commitment is vital to maximising business opportunities in Asia

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Breaking into a new market can seem daunting. Exploring new territories may present challenges but is worth it to maximise new business opportunities.

Researching market opportunities and how to capitalise on them; identifying potential customers and partners; understanding local regulations, legal and geopolitical issues, as well as the unique business culture of the country or countries you are targeting, are the main challenges businesses face. But with challenge comes opportunity of a scale that Irish businesses can’t afford to ignore.

Irish companies have often looked west when in search of markets beyond the Eurozone. Expanding to the United States can seem relatively easy. They speak the same language and our traditional ties to the Irish diaspora creates a ready-made network for business opportunities. Asian markets have been perceived as more difficult, with greater language and cultural barriers to overcome.

 

Irish companies increasingly secure business opportunities in Asia

That perception has been blown away in recent years, as increasing numbers of Irish companies discover the incredible opportunities that exist in the world’s most populous and diverse continent. Exports to Asia by companies backed by Enterprise Ireland were valued at €1.97 billion last year, a 9% increase on 2016 results. We are dedicated to helping Irish exporters across all sectors overcome challenges to maximise business opportunities in Asia.

Speaking at an event focused on the market last year, Julie Sinnamon, chief executive of Enterprise Ireland said: “Probably the biggest common issue or challenge that people face getting into any of the Asian markets is the time it takes. Typically it takes quite a while for people to go and build the trust, to develop a position, to commit to the market. 

“Many companies think that they can go in maybe a couple of visits, get a massive order and come back out again. It doesn’t work like that. Being a big, established company doesn’t necessarily mean it’s going to work in China or India or Japan, or elsewhere in Asia. It is vital that there is commitment from the senior team of a company to work things out when they don’t go to plan, which is not unusual in Asian markets that you haven’t been in before.”

 

Asian business partners value innovation

Robert Schoellhammer, chief Europe representative of the Asian Development Bank (ADB), says that an innovative approach to applying technology is a key quality Asian companies look for in business partners.

He says: “Applying innovation and technology might be second nature in Ireland, but it doesn’t mean it is elsewhere. Innovation can be country specific, so what might be innovative in Mongolia is very commonplace in Germany. Technology and innovation is really critical, and above all it is what our own clients across Asia Pacific are saying that they want to have.”

In South-East Asia, the 10 countries which form ASEAN have started to follow the EU model of multilateralism and breaking down economic barriers. David Daly, the European External Action Service’s head of division for South East Asia, says this will create long-term business opportunities for Irish companies.

“The EU has very close engagement with ASEAN at the very highest level,” he said. “We have experience – we have done things which have worked well and we’ve done things which have worked less well. We offer that experience freely to our ASEAN partners and I think they appreciate it.

“Working with ASEAN is a commitment to the long term – it’s not an issue of jumping in and out for a quick fix, we have established structures that enable us to have an engagement over the very long term.” 

More immediately, many young and innovative companies are already building Ireland’s reputation in these fast-growing markets.

“You don’t necessarily need to be a big, long-established company,” Sinnamon said. “One of the most exciting company meetings I was at recently in China involved a young tech start-up called Coroflo, which has created a monitor that measures the amount of breast milk a baby is getting.

“We visited the largest maternity hospital in Shanghai, where 100 babies are born every day. They were absolutely bowled over with this technology to make sure that a baby is being fed enough – they couldn’t believe the medtech technology available in Ireland.

“Another time, we were in the most iconic new building in Singapore and the owner brought us into what he called the brain of the building, where all the control happens, and he said, ‘Of course, the brain of the building is Irish’. He was talking about Cylon Controls from Dublin.

“Taoglas, a telecommunications equipment supplier, recently opened an office in Shenzhen, and the Chinese distributor who has worked with them said they have only one supplier globally with zero defects and it was Taoglas.

“It’s fantastic when you have companies on the other side of the world providing this sort of endorsement.”

There is more support and advice available than ever before to help Irish companies overcome challenges and build partnerships in Asia. Contact Enterprise Ireland for more information.

 

Electric vehicle

China’s fast-growing electric vehicle market is one to watch

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The carmaker of the future wants to partner with suppliers who can provide technology solutions for automated, connected, electric and shared cars.

How to forge those partnerships was the recurring theme at Connected Autonomous Vehicles (CAV) and Mobility, an event organised by Enterprise Ireland and facilitated by Carol Gibbons, the agency’s director of ICT Commercialisation.

High level panellists included Amer Akhtar, Founder of Foothill Ventures and advisor to Chinese electric vehicle maker NIO; Rahul Vijay, Head of Technology Deal Making at Uber; Anand Ramesh, Vice President of Cluster Computing at Renovo Auto, and Hariveer Dhingra, who heads up Global Digital Transformation, Corporate Venture Capital and New Ventures at Shell.

Participating in China’s fast-growing electric vehicle (EV) market makes sense but takes preparation, delegates heard.

Not alone does the country have the world’s largest EV market but huge government incentives are in place to ensure it stays at the forefront of innovation, and increasingly AI. “There’s a heavy component of government support in China, heavier than in any other country, and when China wants to do something, they make it happen,” said Akhtar.

 

Chinese OEMs are looking for technology partners

Increasingly, Chinese original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) are seeking out technology partners, to get things done, he said. This is transforming traditional supply chain models built around Tier 1 suppliers and in-house R&D.

“The market now is very different because much of the car platform is really software, so right now 40% of the automotive R&D value is provided by partners, and that is moving in the next six or seven years to 55%,” he said.

Traditional OEMs don’t have the level of in-house resources or expertise to develop some of the mobility solutions companies such as Uber or Waymo has. That presents an enormous opportunity for partnerships with start-ups, and even large companies in tangential industries, he said.

Though people define Uber as a technology company, it defines itself as “a technology company that is into all kinds of businesses, doesn’t matter if it is food or health supply or freight or people, we like to move it,” said Rahul Vijay. “We need expertise in all these different vertical industries.”

 

Partners must be global and local

More than that, it wants partners who can be both “global and local”. That is, if Uber is launching an electric bike, it doesn’t want to put multiple modems on each bike, but one that will work with any carrier in the world, he said.

“It means that hardware vendor has to work with multiple different carriers to certify their hardware, but it has to be local too, because at the end of the day, some of these market specifications are very local.”

It isn’t just established players in China that present an opportunity for Irish suppliers. “A lot of Chinese start-ups are looking for partners that can help them expand internationally, to help them get out of the Chinese ecosystem,” said Shell’s Dhingra.

OEMs are looking to invent, partner with and buy in technology, and are doing all three at speed, delegates heard.

“Nio was founded in 2014 and has already launched and delivered two models, which is unheard of if you are a traditional automotive company. You can’t do that by inventing everything,” said Akhtar, who recommended that Irish suppliers move quickly to capture the opportunity.

“Get to market fast. Right now it’s a land grab in the EV space. There are about 200 start-ups that have filed licences for EVs in China alone, and many more around the world.”

 

Electric vehicle companies focus on UX

In the case of NIO, these companies are mostly focused on user experience and not so much on what a traditional OEM delivers – that is, getting people from Point A to Point B.

Focusing on UX means the car itself can be treated as a commodity.

“You can partner, you can buy, or you can build the user experience. It depends on the mission of the company. Ideally, you would do all three but you have a short runway and a limited amount of capital, so you have to put that to the best use,” he said.

The future is all about connectivity and autonomy, with the end result of saving lives on roads, but getting there presents different challenges, said Uber’s Vijay. “We can’t do it all by ourselves, so we need help to put these technologies on the road.”

That includes everything from mapping to leasing to trade finance partnerships, as well as connectivity solutions, such as the tablets it gives restaurants in Uber Eats, or the use of bikes to solve last mile delivery problems.

“We are looking at all modalities of transportation, and a partnership ecosystem that goes all the way from component level to hardware, software and beyond, making transportation as seamless as possible.”

EV makers such as NIO are driven by a World Economic Forum prediction that the digital transformation of the automotive industry will yield US $60 or $70 billion in value for the automotive industry, “but that’s dwarfed by the US $3 trillion societal benefit,” said Akhtar. “As companies think about innovation, it’s about how to get a piece of that multi-trillion market.”

 

Challenges and opportunities in China

Akhtar cautioned Irish suppliers looking to grow their car components market, not to make the mistake of ignoring China.

“In terms of scale it’s just massive, bigger than the US and Europe combined, so it’s a no brainer. Having said that, entry into China is not a no brainer. It’s a very challenging market to go into.”

Those trying should realise that very many Chinese OEMs have set up R&D shops in California, as have a lot of the new energy start-ups in this space, making it a good first port of call to build networks.

China is all about relationships, delegates heard. The right technology without the right contacts won’t work, said Akhtar.

“One approach I see and recommend, especially for start-ups looking to get on the radar of Chinese companies and OEMs, or even big Tier 1s, is to become a Chinese company. China is not one of those markets you dip your toe in the water for. You are either all in or stay out. The Chinese market, whether enterprise, automotive or consumer, does not take kindly to a company operating across the ocean that wants to sell into China. It’s almost a sign of disrespect, that you don’t understand the Chinese market,” he said.

“Equally, if you’ve already got funding in the US or Europe, as part of the deal, it makes it easier to sell into China if you also get Chinese funding, whether from a small corporate investment, or Chinese VC, or a Chinese government agency. When you’ve got that Chinese stamp of approval, it’s much easier to do business. It means you are now a recognised entity, and investors think you must be good. Go in blind and it’s hard for people to trust you.”

Learn more on doing business in the Chinese market with our Going Global Guide to Asia.

ProDig agri machinery

ProDig invests in the future as it continues to do the heavy lifting

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As the use of digital technology to improve farming efficiency increases, it can sometimes be forgotten that advances in more traditional areas of agriculture remain as important as ever.

Machinery is the original agritech. Innovations that reduce the physical workload for farmers are as old as agriculture itself and are vital to the sector’s profitability in every market.

ProDig Attachments prides itself on doing the heavy lifting. From its base in County Carlow, the company introduced its expertise in manufacturing machine attachments for the construction sector into agriculture 10 years ago and quickly built a reputation for the quality and versatility of its machinery.

Donny Nolan, co-founder and director of ProDig, explains: “ProDig has a strong focus on multi-purpose machinery. We produce attachments that will do the job of three traditional attachments, so the farmer only has to buy one. These attachments also make the feeding process easier, faster and more economical.”

ProDig’s product range includes shear grabs, shear buckets, bale handling attachments, folding grass forks, hi-tip buckets, and bag fillers – all of which are designed and manufactured at the company’s purpose-built factory.

ProDig agri attachment

Donny says: “Our products are pitched generally at the top end of the market. We don’t make cheap equipment. We manufacture on a quality basis and on the basis of a long lifespan for an implement, so we look at the mid to top range of the market. There are a lot of manufacturers in Eastern Europe, China and cheaper economies that we don’t really try to compete with. We look to create implements of top-end quality, innovative products.

“We distribute through importerships. We try to have one single point of importership in a region, whether that be a state in the USA or an entire country. For example, in Germany, we have one importer for the whole country and they in turn the distribute to the dealer network.

 

Strong export strategy

“We’ve got nine or 10 export markets and we also have some markets that we export to on a one-off sale. For some of our unique attachments, the likes of bag-filling units, we export to markets where we have one-off sales going direct to end-user customers. This would be to countries including India, Thailand and South Africa.”

It is a model that has served ProDig well. Consistently growing sales of its broad range of products in various export markets is testament to the quality and effectiveness of the machinery ProDig makes. Indeed, the company has big plans for further growth, spearheaded by a major investment to expand its manufacturing facilities at its Bagenalstown base in County Carlow.

Donny says: “We started an expansion plan in mid-2018 and that’s really kicking into place now. We’re expanding our existing production areas. We’re installing new capital items – new fabrication bays, new welding bays, some new machinery, some new robotic systems.

“It is quite a substantial investment. Over a three-year period, we’re looking at an investment of €1.5 million in the business.”

As with the machinery it makes, ProDig has put considerable energy into planning and preparing its expansion plans and the company is confident that the demand for their machinery is there.

Donny explains: “All our existing markets are expanding all the time, as we are. Our German market is expanding, our New Zealand market is expanding. We have several markets that we’re looking to move into over 2019-2020. We’re currently looking at increasing our presence in the USA, and we’re planning to do feasibility studies on the French and Australian markets.

“This investment will give us an increased manufacturing capacity of 40% and this will help us reach these markets.”

 

Focus on R&D drives innovation at ProDig

For ProDig’s customers, the investment and increased capacity also means enhanced innovation to improve and create new machine attachments.

“As part of our three-year investment, starting from the middle of this year, we’re running a new R&D programme to look at several new products,” Donny says.

The focus of the R&D programme will be the same for ProDig as it has been for the past 10 years: to help farmers do the basics better.

Donny explains: “To innovate within those basic tools and come up with new ideas and faster solutions for the basics – the attachments, bailers and other tools – is vital. If you make the basics better, you make the overall better.”

Doing the basics better is very much in the company DNA at ProDig, while the company’s continuing growth and expansion plans demonstrate the importance of innovating and constantly-improving machinery for farming.

 

Learn more about Enterprise Ireland’s innovation supports. enabling companies to develop new market opportunities and maximise their business performance. 

Irish fintech sector poised for growth

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Fintech brings together two areas in which Ireland has traditional strengths – technology and financial services, Minister Michael D’Arcy told delegates at Towards 2025: Trends in Financial Services and Fintech.

Introducing the panel discussion, part of Enterprise Ireland’s International Markets Week in October, Minister Darcy said fintech is a natural evolution for Ireland, thanks to these strengths, as well as a deep talent pool, and unfettered access to European markets.

The strengths give Ireland a platform to build on, enabling it to be at the forefront of fintech development globally.

 

Driving Ireland’s thriving fintech sector

Several recent developments support the position, he said, including the establishment in April of the Central Bank of Ireland’s Innovation Hub and industry engagement programme, designed to ensure evolving fintech and the regulatory landscape keep apace.

In June, Enterprise Ireland launched a €750,000 Competitive Start Fund for fintech and deep tech. Earlier this year Enterprise Ireland, an active investor in fintech, began a fintech census to accurately map Ireland’s fintech sector.

In May 2019, Ireland will host a meeting of the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO), at which global standards pertaining to blockchain technology will be determined.

The Department of Finance has a working group dedicated to blockchain and virtual currencies and is commencing work on a successor to IFS 2020 – the national Strategy for Ireland’s International Financial Services sector.

Panel members at the event included Mo Harvey, fintech and financial services lead with Enterprise Ireland for Asia Pacific, based in Hong Kong, and Mai Santamaria, member of the Department of Finance working group on blockchain and digital currencies.

Joining them in the discussion, facilitated by Eoin Fitzgerald, Enterprise Ireland Senior Development Advisor for fintech, was Denise Delaney of the Central Bank of Ireland, and Laura Clifford, industry partner manager at the Adapt Centre – the Science Foundation Ireland-funded centre for digital content technology at Trinity College Dublin.

 

Growing interest in blockchain

Growing interest in blockchain was a key theme. When Laura Clifford began talking to businesses just 18 months ago about the potential of their blockchain technology, initially none of the 13 she canvassed were initially interested in doing collaborative research. That rose to three, with two more now wanting to be involved. “Appetite is increasing for blockchain,” she said.

Mo Harvey’s experience in Asia backs this up. “When we’re in the market and we talk to major corporates, banks and insurers, invariably when we are bringing in our companies (blockchain) is one of the first questions asked about – the second is AI. When a company doesn’t answer in the positive, it’s a case of ‘Why not?’”

The Central Bank’s interest is in the application of technology, rather than the technology itself, said Denise Delaney.

“We are talking regularly to all the various kinds of firms that we regulate, so we know how the business models are changing and so we know what they are doing. For us, the difficulty is firms outside of the regulatory perimeter, because we’re not accessing them.”

It’s one of the reasons it has created its Innovation Hub, to provide a direct point of contact with the sector’s leading edge.

As well as being able to answer regulatory questions, the Hub allows the Central Bank to gain intelligence on where the market is going. “That’s really useful for us and for ourselves internally. We have to build up our own expertise. We have to be able to use that data, analyse it, to be able to assess authorisations, particularly when they start coming in different technologies,” she said.

 

Moving from fintech to techfin in Asia

The move from fintech to techfin is gathering pace, delegates heard. The activities of Chinese companies such as Alibaba, WeChat and TenCent is driving this, and in the process forcing regulators to play catch up.

With a recent survey showing two thirds of Amazon Prime customers would bank with Amazon, how do regulators view the fact that businesses that are not typically regulated, and which don’t even present themselves as financial services companies, are encroaching into the area? asked Eoin Fitzgerald.

“Once they come into that space, they will come into the regulatory space and then they will be like any other regulated entity and will go through the same processes,” said Denise Delaney of the Central Bank.

“The same principles of consumer protection and sustainable business models and resilience will apply to any firm that begins to fall into that, whether they are big tech or otherwise.”

While everybody is aware of the scale of companies such as AliPay and WeChat, some of Asia’s predominance is down to the fact that the market is bigger, “it’s easier to do the 1 billion transactions”, said Mai Santamaria.

Neither do such companies have to contend with legacy systems. “Sometimes that’s the elephant in the room,” she said.

Moreover, with China, “we’re not really talking about private sector banks. We’re probably talking about publically owned banks,” she said. That makes direct comparisons difficult.

The other side of that coin is that Irish companies benefit by not having to go out and compete with a giant like WeChat or AliPay, she pointed out.

In Asia, ecommerce giants are applying for virtual banking licences, “so they are bringing themselves under the regulatory area, very much so, in partnerships,” said Mo Harvey.

This presents significant opportunities for Irish companies in areas such as digital onboarding and risk monitoring, she said.

The fact that Ireland is a small country is to our advantage, said Santamaria. “What I have seen in the blockchain work in the last six months is that when we get our heads around it, and sit around a table, we get to do things and we do them fast enough. That is where there is opportunity for us.”

This is particularly so because of the increasingly rapid pace of technological change. However, the challenge for fintech is that it is hard for the decision makers, those with the purse strings, “to understand what you are selling,” she cautioned.

“You can’t ask someone to look at potentially what it could do for them, if they don’t understand it. We take for granted that the tech is moving fast and getting complex, so the challenge is simple: as a seller of fintech or regtech, you need to be better at making sense of that message.”

For the future, the opportunity is clear, said Mo Harvey. “We are known as a tech hub, we are also known as a financial services hub. The opportunity is there to build on that. The foundations have been laid, the blocks have been built. Let’s see where we can go with that. Let’s be ambitious from an Irish perspective, as to where we sit on a global stage. That’s the opportunity.”

 

Read more about the Irish companies growing exports in the fintech space.

Speak the language of European customers

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Enterprise Ireland’s GradStart programme helps companies to break through the language barrier.

The single market has given Irish companies free and unfettered access to markets across Europe, and the euro has eliminated currency risk in the majority of them, but a significant trade barrier remains – language. When compared with other EU member states, particularly those in the west of the continent, Ireland lags behind when it comes to language proficiency.

This lack of skills can present real difficulties for Irish companies seeking to break into European markets. “You have to be proficient if you want to be taken seriously,” explains Helen McMahon, senior executive for Client Skills with Enterprise Ireland. “Cultural understanding is also very important when entering a new market, and the ability to speak to potential customers in their own language is vital in that respect.”

 

Overcome the language barrier with GradStart

Help is at hand for companies who wish to overcome the language barrier in the form of the Enterprise Ireland GradStart programme, a new initiative aimed at supporting Enterprise Ireland client companies with the recruitment of graduates to help develop and expand their businesses.

“The programme has been designed to support companies to attract talent and recruit graduates,” says McMahon. “It will help them create a talent pipeline to support and grow their business.”

GradStart provides financial support for the recruitment of up to three graduates in a company. Fifty per cent of the graduate’s yearly salary, subject to a maximum of €15,000 per annum in grant aid, is available for two years, depending on certain conditions.

“The graduate has to be allocated to a specific role and project in the business,” McMahon points out. “The company has to show that it will benefit from having additional expertise in that role and that it will contribute to the growth plan for the business. There also has to be potential for the graduates to learn and acquire new skills. We want the graduates to develop and gain from it as well.”

Very importantly, additional support is on offer for graduates with proficiency in a language relevant to this business; for this cohort, grants of up to 70% of salary subject to a maximum of €21,000 per annum for two years is available. Language proficiency is defined as the graduate being a native speaker; and/or holding a diploma in a required language from a recognised language institute; and/or has lived in a country for at least six months where the required language is the first language of that country; and/or holds a minimum level 6 qualification from a course wholly or partly dedicated to language studies.

“This will help address the lack of language skills in companies,” says McMahon “and help companies attract graduates with language ability. Although graduates cannot be assigned to direct sales and marketing roles, they will add enormous value to a company in areas crucial to successful market entry and growth such as market analysis, research on market needs and competitors, and marketplace profiling or roles in other key aspects of the business. Having a direct knowledge of the local language is essential for all of these things.” Over time, these graduates may have the opportunity to become permanent members of staff.

 

Importance of languages in the Eurozone

Looking to the Eurozone, she points out that language is vitally important regardless of the market concerned. “Even in the Netherlands, where English is so widely spoken, company websites and technical documentation will be in Dutch, and you need to fully understand these in order to compete successfully.”

IMS Labels hired graduate Marcella Mendes, who speaks Portuguese, Italian, Spanish and English, with the support of the GradStart programme. “The Enterprise Ireland GradStart Programme has not only enabled IMS Labels to rapidly develop our expertise through highly skilled graduates, it gave us an instant advantage in our international target markets through multilanguage capability,” says Commercial Director, Steven Burke.

Contract manufacturer Keltech has benefited through hiring a German-speaking graduate: “English is the universal business language,” says Business Development Manager, Seamus Lawlor. “However, we felt that certain opportunities were not being realised by not speaking our clients’ mother tongue. The introduction of our native German-speaking graduate in 2018 bridged this gap. Our clients are genuinely impressed that we have taken the time and effort to recruit a multilingual employee who can dive deeper into their requirements through their native language.”

Developing in-company capability for Eurozone languages is increasingly important, particularly in light of Brexit. “Even if there was no Brexit, there is a need to build Irish exports in the Eurozone,” McMahon notes. “And we must not let language be a barrier to that. The GradStart programme can help companies overcome that barrier while also bringing in new skills to help them meet their growth ambitions.”

The benefits aren’t limited to Eurozone markets of course. “Language proficiency can be even more important in Asia, where English is not so widely spoken, and cultural sensitivity can be crucial to success. GradStart can help companies recruit overseas graduates who were studying here and are now looking for an opportunity to stay on,” McMahon adds.

Companies wishing to avail of support under the GradStart programme should contact their Enterprise Ireland development advisor in the first instance. “They will guide the company through the process and assess if they are eligible for support to employ one, two or three graduates. We can help companies find the graduates, but we also encourage companies to source graduates directly. We recommend that companies build relationships with third-level institutions to support them to build talent pipelines for the future. We have set up the gradhub.ie website to help companies find the right graduates and they can also use the gradireland.ie website.”

Spearline Irish telecoms monitoring global brands

Spearline: Irish telecoms monitoring company delivers peace of mind to global brands

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Monitoring millions of calls across the world

Somewhere in South Korea a Mastercard client is attempting to call customer service to talk about their account – but they can’t. The call drops. If this continues the customer will become frustrated and unhappy.

They’re going to make one more call attempt before lodging a complaint.

More than 10,000 km across the Pacific in Saint Louis, Missouri, the dropped call has not gone unnoticed. In real time, Mastercard’s command centre has been alerted and reroutes calls to its contact centre via another carrier route. The next time the South Korean customer dials they go straight through on a perfect line.

 

Addressing a problem using Irish innovation

The complaint never comes. Mastercard’s brand equity remains unimpacted and the firm’s Vice President of Global Contact Centre Infrastructure Management, Tom Hinds, knows millions of similar calls are being monitored thanks to Spearline, an Irish telecoms firm based in Skibbereen, County Cork.

Spearline’s phone number monitoring software was adopted by Mastercard just over a year ago. It is soon to be rolled out to almost all of the Mastercard network, a network that spans 65 customer contact centres in 128 different countries.

For Hinds, the Spearline product has solved a problem companies like Mastercard, Amazon and other global footprint firms have encountered: finding out exactly where phone line degradation occurs so they can fix it.

Hinds says, “The peace of mind it gives me is tremendous. I’m not waiting for a phone call from some country’s president telling me that the level of service is not good because I’m aware of the service ahead of time. I know when the service is degraded, and I know when to move it so I don’t get those calls anymore.

“It’s a big win. You can’t put a dollar amount on that but it’s a big win.”

It’s not only a big win for Hinds but for 15 years of product development and testing, iteration, and refining for Spearline. The firm’s automated phone number testing software has required not only innovation but investment. Spearline can respond to the needs of Fortune 500 companies because it has sited its monitoring servers in more than 60 countries around the world, enabling it to deliver precise geo-located results, as well as real-time loss in quality of service.

 

Eolving for rapid global growth

Co-founded by university friends Matt Lawlor and Kevin Buckley, Spearline began by selling localised open source software for the Irish business telephony market. But it was the market disruption of the recession that catalysed Spearline to evolve and develop the innovative product that drove its rapid global growth.

Liam Dunne Chief Commercial Officer explains, “We realised that large multinational organisations really had no visibility on the performance nor uptime of telephone numbers across the globe.

“Companies had telephone numbers all over the world but they had no sense that, if an end user picked up the phone in a particular country, that the number was going to work. With global call center operations costing into the hundreds of millions to setup and run; the performance of a single phone number has the ability to crash the whole infrastructure, investment and waste hundreds of thousands of dollars in a single instance. A phone number not operation effectively can have a detrimental effect on a company’s brand.

“It was a complete blind spot for them.

“The only way to find out that it wasn’t working was when customer complaints racked up and the business was negatively affected through missed calls and lost sales.

“It was more than a blind spot, it was a real risk factor.”

 

Holding service providers to account

In addition to helping Mastercard deliver on its customer experience, Spearline’s automated phone number testing dashboard allows it to hold service providers to account with precise data on outages and loss of QOS.

Hinds adds, “It also holds our carriers accountable to service agreements. There wasn’t a reliable way of measuring that before. With this tool we can draw down reports and tell carriers on exactly what circuit or time of day poor quality of service was recorded.”

Spearline’s approach is working. Turnover has risen 70% for the past two years and the company now has more than 60 employees based in its Skibbereen HQ with a global sales office in Mooncoin, Kilkenny, plus other office locations in India and Romania. Its servers are used as test lines in 66 countries.

Impressing an experienced telecoms VP like Mastercard’s Hinds isn’t easy. But he admits Spearline has something special.

“It is a unique offering. Carriers do have an offering but none of the ones I’ve seen can measure from in-country, where the call is originating, to the country of destination, across multiple carrier hops.”

Spearline refuses to stand still. It projects further growth and increased demand for its new product that solves the headache of being GDPR compliant for firms. Another simple but sophisticated software solution.

 

Read more about the Irish companies using innovative products and services to sell into international markets.

Innovating for Recovery: CW Applied Technology

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On the first episode in our new series Innovating for Recovery, we are joined by the Managing Director of electronics company CW Applied Technology, John O’Connell. In response to the Covid-19 crisis, CW Applied Technology designed and manufactured a portable Room UV-C Steriliser. 

The portable steriliser is designed for virtually any room that needs air and surface disinfection, including sterile areas, laboratories, unoccupied patient room. On the show, we discuss, the origins of the idea, and its variety of uses, particularly during the Covid-19 pandemic.

 

Appetite for growth in Asia will serve food and drink exporters well

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Asia’s appetite is growing, and its 4.5 billion inhabitants are increasingly turning to imported food for satisfaction.

While far from an untapped market, Asia remains full of potential for Irish food and drink exporters, who can innovate and supply nutritionally healthy and sustainable produce for its growing market of increasingly affluent consumers.

A marked rise in the proportion of Irish food and drink exports going to international markets outside Europe has been a prominent trend in recent years.

 

Impressive export growth to Asia

Asia accounts for one third of Irish food and drink exports, compared to less than 20% just 10 years ago. Exports to China alone have trebled in the last five years, from just over €450 million to €1.4 billion. Population growth and an emerging middle class with increased spending power are driving this growth, especially through dairy and for formula-based products. 

 However, Mary Ledman, Global Dairy Strategist for Rabobank, explains: “The gap between dairy production and imports in Asia will rise to about 20 million tonnes by 2025, and somebody has got to fill that gap.

“Chinese cheese imports topped 100,000 tonnes for the first time in 2017. The Asian Five – the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam – also hit the 100,000 tonnes of cheese targets. Japan and Korea together account for 340,000 tonnes.

“Asian Five demand is increasing at about 10% annually, China’s by about 20%, and Japan and Korea being more mature markets are growing by 2%.

“China’s dairy imports from Ireland have grown 31% over the past five years – three times faster than China’s total dairy imports. Infant formula exports from Ireland to China have been key to this growth. Last year, Ireland’s market share in China for infant formula was 13%, compared to 5% in 2012. 

“The role of dairy since the abolition of quotas in 2015 has magnified the potential for Ireland going forward. There are ambitions to grow dairy sector exports to Asian markets by 30% to 2020, and Ireland is well positioned to do so.”

 

Ireland’s vibrant food and drink sector

Ireland’s food and drink industry is indeed vibrant. Eight years of consecutive growth have increased the value of global exports 60% to €12.6 billion. Bord Bia has identified 15 markets globally with the greatest potential for significant growth for Irish food and drink industry. Within dairy, seven of those 15 markets are in Asia. Within meat, eight of them are in Asia. Within seafood, seven are in Asia. No matter what way we look at it, Asia offers significant potential for the Irish food and drink industry.

Owen Brennan, chairman of Devenish Nutrition, which manufactures and exports innovative nutritional products and solutions for the feed industry, believes that the trend towards increased sustainability will continue to grow in importance.

 Brennan said: “Focusing on the future of food and agriculture, it’s pretty obvious to say that it must be sustainable if there is to be a future – and innovation is key to developing that sustainable position.

“Looking at the trends as they apply in Asia, there also has to be integrity. Products need to say precisely what they do. They need to do precisely what they say.

“There’s huge interest in the role good quality food plays in promoting good health in these markets, some of which are very sophisticated.”

 A strong focus on health, nutrition, innovation and sustainability are a recipe for success for Irish food and drink exporters looking to capitalise on growing opportunities in Asia.

 

Learn how Enterprise Ireland supports companies to enter the Asian market: China, Singapore, Vietnam, Japan, Hong Kong, South Korea and Malaysia.

Chinese e-commerce

Target China’s booming e-commerce market

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China delivers 40% of global e-commerce retail sales, with a market value that exceeds US $1 trillion.

China has overtaken the US to become the world’s number one online shopping market, with the country currently accounting for more than 40% of global e-commerce retail sales. As a result, China’s e-commerce market value now exceeds US $1 trillion. Two of China’s biggest players in this market played a big part in this. In 2017, Alibaba and Tencent delivered record-breaking profits, demonstrating just how healthy China’s consumer market remains. Alibaba’s profit almost doubled to US $2.1 billion and Tencent’s grew by 70% to a value of US $2.7 billion during the period.

Cross-border e-commerce has grown rapidly in China, signalling the importance of foreign brands to Chinese consumers. The cross-border e-commerce market reached 7.5 trillion RMB in 2017 (the figure includes both B2C and B2B cross-border e-commerce). The main driver for this is Chinese consumer demand for a wider selection of better quality products.

Enterprise Ireland has ramped up its supports to encourage more companies to capitalise on the potential of this lucrative market. Several companies supported by Enterprise Ireland, including Emerald Green Baby, Ovelle, Irish Breeze, Max Benjamin, Allied Imports, Newbridge and ClevaMama, are already present on e-commerce platforms in China.

Company logos

Enterprise Ireland provides support in the following areas:

  • Introductions to Chinese e-commerce platforms
  • Introductions to Chinese third-party operators, who can assist in a variety of sectors, such as jewellery, mother and baby products, and cosmetics
  • Connections with local Chinese buyers, including department stores and hotels

 

For more information on how Enterprise Ireland can help you access the Chinese market contact our Shanghai office on +86 21 6010 1380 or email jonathan.nie@enterprise-ireland.com.

Burgeoning middle class in China creates opportunities along New Silk Road

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“Made in China” are three words that became ubiquitous in global manufacturing. Being a factory for the world powered China’s economic rise over the past four decades to become the New Silk Road.

The most populous nation on earth has gone from producing less than 3% of global manufacturing output by value in 1990 to almost a quarter last year. Companies large and small throughout the world have products that are made in China, including 80% of the world’s air-conditioners, 70% of its mobile phones, and 60% of its shoes.

 

How China became the ‘New Silk Road’

Exporting is key to China’s success but it has also transformed the domestic economy into one that is increasingly consumer-led.

More than 400 million of China’s 1.4 billion population are now considered middle class. Consumer spending accounts for more than 60% of economic growth in China and, according to a study by consulting firm McKinsey, 76% of China’s urban population will be considered middle class by 2022, compared to just 4% in 2000.

Dr. Linda Yueh, a fellow in economics at Oxford University, where she directs the China Growth Centre, says that this burgeoning middle class presents huge opportunities for Irish exporters seeking to sell into what is forecast to become the world’s largest economy as early as 2020.

“China is now a maturing economy and has reached the stage where future growth is going to rely on domestic demand,” Dr. Yueh says. “The cities are already full of rich people and therein lie opportunities for Irish exporters, particularly given that many local companies there haven’t yet faced global competition.

“You can be a massive firm in China and never have faced global competition because in China you have a domestic market of 1.4 billion people.”

The 1980s is when China began to reform and to upgrade its industries, moving out of central planning and becoming more market oriented. This ‘open doors’ policy towards global trade transformed the country and it continues to advance today in the form of the ‘New Silk Road’ routes of the Chinese government’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

The BRI development strategy involves infrastructure development and investments that will connect cities across 68 countries and including 65% of the world’s population across Asia, Europe and Africa. The plan is to open trade corridors and develop a unified market which creates jobs and opportunities for people and businesses along the routes. Crucially for Irish exporters, it will make it easier for businesses to reach China’s growing middle classes.

 

Irish ambition in China

An increasing number of Irish companies partnering with Enterprise Ireland have set their sights on taking advantage of this vast and rapidly expanding market.

In 2017, Enterprise Ireland client exports to Greater China grew by 9.7% to record levels of €1.03 billion, with China now accounting for 52% of client exports to the Asia Pacific region. Enterprise Ireland has set ambitious targets to grow exports to Greater China by 40% to €1.44 billion by 2020.

Dr. Yueh says that demand for high-quality innovative, imported products will continue to grow strongly in China for the foreseeable future.

“A third of the world lived in abject poverty in 1990. Today we are at a historic point, where just one in 10 live in extreme poverty. More than one billion people have been lifted out of poverty since 1990 and most of that is due to China,” she says.

“Hundreds of millions of people have entered the middle class and on current growth rates the projections are that in a couple of years, we’ll have 3.2 billion people who are middle class around the world. That’s somebody earning between $10-$100 dollars per day.

“By 2030, and this point may be hit even sooner given how strong emerging economies growth is, especially in Asia, for the first time ever more than half of the world will be middle class – 4.9 billion out of an estimated 8.5 billion people at that point.

“At the moment, more than half of the middle class are in the West but by 2030, two-thirds of the middle class will be in Asia.

“This means there will be a huge amount of opportunities that we haven’t seen before. The United States powered the world economy following World War II in terms of growth with about a quarter of a million people. With Asia, we are talking about five billion people who are going to be middle class. Some of these countries, including China, may not become rich on average but the changes this is bringing into the world economy are significant.

“We’re all going to be impacted by these tremendous opportunities as a new global middle class in China and indeed the rest of Asia.”

 

Contact Enterprise Ireland’s local office for information and support about identifying and developing market opportunities in China.