Press Release
Immediate release

16 May 2008

Businesses need to look more towards Eurozone for sales

John Whelan, Chief Executive of the Irish Exporters Association (IEA), stated in his address at the opening of the BT Small Business and Franchise show in Cork today (16 May 2008);

“81% of industrial enterprises are small firms employing less than 50 people. In 2007 these small manufacturing firms exported 3.2 billion euro. This is a significant 37% of their total sales turnover. Of these exports, 42% was exported to the EU (excluding the UK), while 40% was sent to the UK.

This shows that the small businesses are diversifying their sales into the euro zone and have eased their reliance on the UK which 10 years ago accounted for over 70% of their exports. In the current climate of falling Sterling values this is an important diversification which must be continued and encouraged.’’

He went on to say:

“The BT Small Business and Franchise show in Cork today, provides a wide range of support advice from banks, the County and City Enterprise Boards, and the Irish Exporters Association (IEA), as well as many others."

In particular he drew the small business owners’ attention to the IEA Stimutran-SME programme (an EU funded initiative) to stimulate cross-border trade and match business partners in European countries.

Talking about the services sector in Ireland, he said;

“The biggest sector of small business is the services sector. There are 82,000 services firms in Ireland, of which 98% are small businesses. The services sector as whole had a turnover of 87 billion euro last year, with small firms accounting for 48% of this. But despite of the many opportunities abroad, the services exports from the small firms was just over a billion (1.2 billion euro estimate for 2007)”.

John Whelan concluded by calling on the small services companies to embrace the challenge to internationalise. He stated;

‘’Businesses that focus primarily or even exclusively on the domestic market are more open to trading difficulties in an economic slow down and will have to become competitive internationally in order to secure long-term survival and growth.’’

For further information on the BT Small Business Show, visit
www.businessandfranchise.ie

For further information on IEA export programmes contact;
Orla Sweeney, Marketing Manager, Irish Exporters Association
Email: orlasweeney@irishexporters.org

END

About the Irish Exporters Association (IEA)

The IEA represents the needs of export industry ensuring that the necessary conditions are created and the necessary support is provided to assist companies to maximise their export sales. The IEA draws its membership from every exporting sector, ensuring that the interests of all industries are represented

and promoted at the highest level.

www.irishexporters.ie