Middle Eastern promise for Terasaki

Terasaki, which makes large-scale circuit breakers for industrial use, was finding that its traditional European export markets like Spain and Italy had suffered badly at the height of the Eurozone crisis. 

For a company with 75% of its turnover in exports, the financial crisis was making a dent in its business.

Tom Craig, general manager of Terasaki UK, based at the company's international headquarters in Clydebank, says that Teraski was looking to diversify into other markets and was looking at South America, Russia and the Middle East.

“It was by going on a trade mission to the United Arab Emirates and Qatar with Scottish Development International that convinced us that the Middle East market was where we should focus a lot of our new export effort,” Craig says.

He says that those on the trade mission visited the British embassies where they were given in-depth economic analysis on the region and its projected future output as well as very useful detail on prospects for the oil and gas and water sectors.

“The sense we gained from being there, of the scale of the coming investment in Dubai up until 2020 and in Qatar for the World Cup, convinced us it was the place we should focus our export investment.”

Why the Middle East?

That decision followed a lot of analysis of the markets and was based on a number of factors including the fact that so many people in the Middle Eastern target markets speak English.

“It means that you don’t have to get your catalogue translated as you do into Spanish or Italian and it also means that you can get direct feedback from decision makers and influencers without having to use interpreters,” Craig says.

“Another factor is the direct air link from Glasgow Airport. It is seven-and-a-half hours on a plane to Dubai but from there you are just an hour to Qatar or Bahrain.”

Scottish Development International were able to provide financial help for the first year in their new target market, to go towards the costs of exhibitions and seminars which helped with the initial approach to the new market.

As a result Teraski is going to commit significant resources, planning to appoint a representative on the ground in Dubai. 

Tom Craig and his fellow directors are convinced that the investment will pay off. This will mean expansion for their business in Scotland to service new Middle Eastern customers and additions to the current 110 headcount at their Scottish base in Clydebank.

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