Last week, Minister for Exports Lord Offord travelled to Cardiff, Swansea and Bridgend in South Wales to hear directly from a group of businesses about their exporting journeys and to talk about how the Department for Business and Trade (DBT) can support them expand into international markets.

He also visited the Penderyn Whisky Distillery, an export success story run by a DBT Export Champion and Kontroltek, an industrial electronic repair firm, to hear how they’ve expanded into markets globally.

Minister for Exports Lord Offord said:

“Wales exported almost £24 billion worth of goods and services in 2021. Welsh businesses are doing fantastic work selling their products to the world, and we want to see more businesses get onto the exporting ladder and take advantage of the opportunities available.

“It is always a pleasure to meet with businesses to find out what export challenges they face and how additional government support can help them take the next step in their journeys.”

In other activities:

The Minister attended a roundtable organised by the Federation of Small Businesses in Wales. He heard first-hand experiences of exporting and will take the opportunity to raise awareness of DBT’s recent announcement that it is further expanding its export support in Wales with the introduction of International Trade Advisors.

Three of the businesses around the table are Welsh Export Champions: Stephen Davies from Penderyn, Kamal Ali from My Salah Mat and Tee Sandu from Samosa Co.

He then traveled to the Penderyn Whisky Distillery. This summer the Swansea Distillery became Penderyn’s third site to open in Wales – they already have distillery and visitor centres in Penderyn and Llandudno.

The last five years have seen excellent growth both in the UK and overseas for the business with new whisky lines introduced for the UK market and Siddiqui Rum increasing sales in the USA.  Exports make up 30% of their business sales and their main whisky export markets, as well as he USA, are Europe, China and Japan.

The Minister will also visited industrial electrical repair company Kontroltek, to hear directly how they may be helped by additional government support.Established in 2011, The business has grown significantly since and their main export markets are Germany, Poland, USA, and Mexico.