As chairman of the British Security Industry Association’s Export Council, John Davies – the managing director of access control solutions specialist TDSi – is firmly committed to the promotion of UK-based security expertise in overseas markets.
TDSi has been involved with the Export Council since its inception and is a forward-thinking operation which has been looking at the whole convergence and integration agenda for the past five years and more.
Importantly, the Export Council has worked diligently to attract new members over the years but, of the BSIA’s 500-plus registered members, only around 50 of them are actively exporting their solutions.
“We need to do more,” said Davies, who recently visited the organisers of IFSEC International to discuss a raft of issues including convergence and integration, and the general business landscape as things stand at present. “We’ve brought several new companies into the Export Council already this year, but there’s definitely room for more.”
In the first instance, there’s going to be an all-new ‘Top Ten Tips for Exporting’ guide launched at the NEC this May in a concerted bid to entice more UK security companies to flaunt their skills and solutions in front of potential overseas customers.
On the subject of trade shows, Davies added: “We also want to see more and more UK Pavilions and product showcases at international exhibitions, Brian.”
Davies and his fellow Export Council members (such as Andrew Knights, the managing director at Selectamark Security Systems) are working all the while to facilitate opportunities with UK Trade and Investment’s Defence and Security Organisation, which itself operates a Security Advisory Group.
“How we deliver awareness of overseas opportunities for UK SMEs is going to be crucial,” explained Davies. “We need to start using social media and LinkedIn, for example, to leverage greater interest.”
Areas for new business in Europe and beyond
The Export Council’s work, then, is “all about promoting UK plc’s abilities to the big, wide world” and there’s no doubt that continual canvassing of member companies is regularly highlighting the possible areas for business in Europe and beyond.
Indeed, there are already moves afoot to canvass opinion on the Indian security market well ahead of the next IFSEC India Exhibition (which runs from 1-3 November this year).
Focusing specifically on the access control market in which his own company is to be found, Davies explained that, at present, getting projects signed off is still an issue. Apparently, business in France has slowed down a tad due to the EuroZone crisis (which is only to be expected), but on the positive side there’s major growth to be seen in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the Oman and West Africa (for example in Nigeria and Ghana) as well as East Africa (notably in Kenya, where the financial sector is crying out for solutions due to ATM fraud and ID theft, and Tanzania).
On the back of certain Governments across the African continent having shown more and more stability of late, some countries are now beginning to grow and offer fertile grounds for UK companies looking to export their security prowess.
“TDSi chose to exhibit at IFSEC West Africa,” outlined Davies, “and our Nigerian sales have quadrupled as a direct result of that.”
He added: “There are going to be lots of opportunities to do business in South East Asia in the coming months, too, in countries like Vietnam, Indonesia and Malaysia. Many of the Governments are now wanting to do business with manufacturers from the G7 nations.”
Closer to home, Davies suggested that Q3 and Q4 2012 ought to be “good” for sales here in the UK “as long as Europe remains stable”.
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