Huddersfield company plays it cool in Italy

For many cancer patients battling with their illness, the hair loss that is a common side-effect of chemotherapy treatment can put an additional stress on their condition.

Though not life-threatening in itself, hair loss can have a devastating psychological effect, stripping people of their personal dignity and visibly marking them out as ill.

The Paxman scalp cooling system, developed in 1997 by Glenn Paxman in Huddersfield, came about after witnessing the distress caused by hair loss when his wife underwent cancer therapy. The cooling system consists of a lightweight silicone cap which is connected to a small refrigeration system. The cap, worn by patients before and during chemotherapy sessions, has since proved to have an outstanding success rate in the prevention of hair loss during cancer treatment.

Paxman Coolers Ltd now supplies its innovative system into more than 165 cancer centres in the UK and Ireland, a figure which is increasing month by month.

Meanwhile overseas sales are also growing, with cancer patients across Europe, as well as in Egypt and Japan, all benefitting from scalp-cooling during chemotherapy treatment. 

Now UK Trade & Investment (UKTI) is helping the company to grow its business in the highly competitive international healthcare sector.

Sales manager Paul Paxman said: “We quickly discovered that the services offered by UK Trade & Investment are not reserved for the big companies. They can be extremely helpful to smaller companies like us who have an excellent product but can benefit from guidance as to how to target overseas markets in the most efficient and cost-effective way. Some time ago we signed up to the Passport to Export programme which gave us lots of helpful tips about the exporting process. We have also found the Overseas Market Introduction Service (OMIS) to be a useful tool when considering the potential of new overseas markets. This service, which provides a business report on a target market with suggested leads to follow, is currently helping us explore options in Germany and France. UKTI’s healthcare sector specialist based in the region has also been a very good contact for us.”

In October 2008 Paxman Coolers joined more than 30 other companies from Yorkshire and the Humber in UKTI’s International Business Network (IBN) in Milan.

The IBN in Italy was a whirlwind two-day event aimed at introducing many companies to the Italian market for the first time. For those already operating in Italy, the IBN offered an opportunity to promote their business further in the Italian market.

The collaboration of the two UKTI teams based in Yorkshire and at the British consulate in Milan was crucial to the success of the event, which provided a series of one-to-one meetings with potential Italian firms for each participating Yorkshire company.

Paul said: “Italy is among a number of European markets where we are already exporting our scalp cooling systems. Within the framework of the IBN we were hoping to identify an active distributor who would help us expand our business there. The UKTI team in Milan set up five meetings for us in the space of one afternoon with hospital suppliers in the public and private health sector. The suppliers came to us, so there were no logistics problems to worry about and we could just get on and talk business.”

Graham Percival, deputy regional director for UK Trade & Investment in Yorkshire and the Humber said: “Over the last four years the IBN has evolved into a driving force in the export life of the region. Milan was our third IBN to be held overseas and was extremely successful, with 32 Yorkshire companies meeting up with over 90 Italian companies in the space of one day. In collaboration with the UKTI team based in Milan we were able to give some companies their first taster of business opportunities in Italy while others like Paxman Coolers were able to take advantage of the event to raise their business profile in Italy.”

The Paxman scalp cooling system was winner of the Millennium Product Award for Innovation in 2007 which was presented by the Prime Minister.

Website: www.paxman-coolers.co.uk