BCB’s February Newsletter: succeeding in the Middle East

29 Feb, 2024

Good Morning

Yesterday we hosted a delegation of UK firms who were visiting the UAE on a London + Partners mission to look at business and set up opportunities in the region.  Amongst the 25 companies, mainly from the Fintech and Sustainability sectors, you could see the interest, drive and passion to succeed here and having supported hundreds of British firms over the last 10+ years, we’ve got a pretty good feel on what tends to work and how you can make waves out here.

And it starts with gaining a proper understanding of the market for your goods & services and therefore the likelihood of succeeding which, I appreciate, is a basic market entry approach for anywhere in the world.  Once you’ve established this, you need to be making a plan on having a presence here, either through an agent or by coming in directly yourself and that is probably the greatest arbiter of success that we’ve seen.  If you want to be taken seriously here, grow your business and, importantly, ensure compliance with emerging tax laws and regulations that are coming into force, then setting up in the UAE is essential.

We’re pleased to feature some of our clients whom we’ve supported on this journey in the last few years to give their first-hand experiences on how they’ve approached the UAE. Renishaw PLC, listed on the FTSE, brings the perspective of a multinational firm with multiple overseas offices whilst Microtech, an SME from Leicester talks from the perspective of a small company for whom this international expansion is a massive step-change in their business.  Both are now growing and succeeding in their own ways as a result of having made the decision to invest locally.

Pentire, on the other hand, has gone down the traditional export route selling from the UK into the market here and is now gaining significant traction as a result of their patient and planned approach.

With the UAE’s economy forecast to grow by approx. 5% this year and the access it provides to regional opportunities of immense scale, we see another good year ahead.  If you’d like to find out more on how we could help you, be it with research, set up or client introductions, please get in touch.

Regards
Joe

 

Microtech expands to the UAE

Specialist software development and cyber security company, MicroTech Digital, expands to the UAE through the BCB’s incubator programme. Click here for the full Press Release.

Q&A with Pentire Drinks – Journey into the UAE’s F&B market

After a successful meeting with Spinneys, we commenced product testing and label translations. Learn more on Pentire’s journey in the region.