Dismatec Ltd

A Sheffield company has seen a rise of 60% in its export turnover since it began working with UK Trade & Investment (UKTI) last year.

Dismatec Ltd was founded in 2004 to provide a one-stop-shop service for glass plant engineering and furnace installation projects.

The company has over thirty years of expertise in the world-wide glass industry and offers a range of services from consultancy on all stages of glass plant projects to new furnace installation, existing furnace rebuild and inspection and maintenance.

Recently, with the support of UKTI, Dismatec identified several market areas for its specialist services including Egypt and Eastern Europe.

After further discussions with UKTI the company decided to concentrate their attention on Egypt where it has now successfully completed two contracts and has a good potential to win others.

Managing director Michael Horsfield said: “We had already made an independent sales and marketing visit to Egypt to investigate the business potential there. It was only when we got back that we began to discover the UKTI export services that were available to us locally and we decided to take a closer look.

“Joining the Passport to Export programme marked the beginning of our collaboration with UKTI and this led to other export services being flagged up for our attention. With ‘Passport’ we were able to look at other potential overseas markets for our business, but in the meantime we decided to focus on Egypt where we had already made some contacts.

“With funding available under the ‘Passport’ programme we were able to make a second visit to Egypt and this time with more export insight from UKTI, such as advice on routes to market, we were able to achieve more. First of all we got ourselves an agent out there and we now have two auditing contracts which will hopefully be just the beginning. We see it as a great opportunity to develop our business in Egypt and demonstrate the full range of our expertise.

“Given our experience in the Egyptian market and the ongoing collaboration with UTKI, we now feel better positioned to begin to explore other market areas.”

UKTI international trade adviser Jo Barker said: “It’s always good to be able to get new companies on board with our services and it’s especially satisfying when you can see the clear results as with Dismatec. The company is now getting to know the full range of our export expertise including the support available for them locally via our staff based in the embassies overseas. I have already made sure that Dismatec is now in contact with our UKTI team based in Egypt and a future meeting is planned.”

The company has also benefitted from another UKTI service – the Export Communications Review (ECR). This service gets company to focus on their communication systems, from company literature to its website.

Mr Horsfield said: “I would say that the meeting with Mary Cousins, who runs the ECR programme, was one of the most valuable for the company. Among other things, she gave us some excellent pointers about our website content and design, ideas which we have already fed back into the business.”

While Dismatec will be focusing on Egypt for the time being, in the future, they are also keen to explore opportunities in the Far East.

Added Mr Horsfield: “The economic climate is hitting everyone hard and the glass industry is no exception. As more and more businesses are unable to afford new installations they are seeking to extend the life of their plant for a few more years with a furnace rebuild. This is an area where we have specialist expertise and we can oversee the entire project for them.

“UKTI is now helping us explore the possibility of export funding from Yorkshire Forward’s Targeted Export Support Scheme (TESS) to develop our business in the Far East.”

For further information on the company please visit www.dismatecglassplant.com.