emita is pleased to announce Jet Press Ltd as October's Member of the Month. You can find out more about this local company below from their Export Manager, John Cunnigham, including the company’s overseas challenges, international achievements and aspirations for the future.

1. Please provide a company background including when it was established, where it is located, how many staff you employ etc. 

Jet Press, with a warehouse and distribution centre just off junction 28 of the M1 motorway in Nottinghamshire, employs around 65 people and is engaged in the manufacture and world-wide distribution of specialist engineered industrial fasteners and fittings to a range of sectors including automotive, furniture, marine, security and general industrial. Jet Press also owns a fastener manufacturing company in Aylesbury.

 

2.  Please provide an overview of the products and services offered and areas of specialisation.

Engineered metal and plastic fasteners are the main products supplied and manufactured by Jet Press, however the company is continually adding to the range of products offered and have moved into other products such as, gas springs,  furniture components, security labels and clothing fasteners. Our largest growth product over the last twelve months has been for our range of Jetloc Bonding Fasteners. Our bonding fastener website (www.jetloc.com) has been the main source of our export enquiries for bonding fasteners and has allowed us to grow sales for this range of products worldwide, the highlight being a large contract to supply bonding fasteners into China.

 

3.  How did you find out about emita and what benefits do you find the most valuable?

A previous Export Manager at Jet Press, Adrian Bates, was the person who introduced us to EMITA. As an exporting fastener and industrial components company we find the EMITA market briefings to be quite useful when we are researching new countries to export to.

 

4.  How long has your company been active in the export / import market and which countries do you currently trade with? 

The company was originally established in 1977 as a manufacturer and distributor of weld nut fasteners. At the time the German automotive industry was the major user of this product and Germany was the logical place to initiate export activity, with the German owner of the company providing enthusiastic guidance from personal experience. Since then the company has set up a network of distributors worldwide and has business in all parts of the globe.

 

5.  What made you decide to expand your business overseas?

Having a German chairman meant that we were always going to have motivation to expand our business into that country. After success in Germany, it was the logical thing to carry on expanding sales into other countries. We now have customers from more than 50 countries in 6 continents taking thousands of different products.

 

6.  What has been your biggest exporting / importing challenge?

The biggest challenge has been finding the right business partners in our target markets. In Germany we are lucky to have four commission agents on the ground who actively hunt for new business. They have all been with us for many years now so have great knowledge and expertise in our type of business. In other countries we mainly work through distributors and this means we have to be careful to select a partner that has a complimentary range of products that can be sold alongside the Jet Press range.

 

7.  What’s the most helpful piece of international trade advice you have received?

I was once told that the best way to learn about an export market was to go out and meet people in the industry face-to-face. This was good advice. Desk research is great and is vital but nothing can beat actually being in the country and talking to people. In the early days we joined quite a few trade missions to countries we wanted to find out more about. These trips taught us a lot. Nowadays the likes of Ryanair and Easyjet mean that new exporters can visit potential European markets quickly and really cheaply, so there's no excuse not to get out there if you fancy exporting to our EU partners. If you fancy going further afield, jump onto a trade mission!

 

8.  What does the future hold? Any particular markets you are looking to target next?

We are currently looking to develop the Asian markets, specifically in India and China. We are also doing some good business development in South America. We believe that these markets have great potential for us. We are lucky enough to have a website that is very well used in the fastener industry (www.jetpress.com) and brings us daily enquiries from all over the world. This combined with the help of organisations such as EMITA should help us to be very successful in growing our export business even more!