Northern Ireland launch of £8million business programme

An £8million business programme to help indigenous companies expand and develop their export potential was launched today by Economy Minister Arlene Foster

The four year initiative is the new phase of InterTradeIreland’s £8million Acumen Programme which is jointly funded by Invest NI and Enterprise Ireland and targeted at SMEs in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.

Over the past five years Acumen has supported 132 locally owned Northern Ireland companies and 300 companies in total across Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, creating almost 400 new jobs and new cross-border sales of £28million.

Mrs Foster made the announcement during a visit to The Bite Group in Enniskillen. The Bite Group supplies sandwiches and snacks to outlets across Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, and has been supported by both InterTradeIreland’s Acumen and FUSION programmes.

The minister said: “Competitiveness and innovation are now the springboard for enterprise development in the modern knowledge economy and such programmes as Acumen are designed to deliver on these.

“InterTradeIreland can assist enterprises in Northern Ireland to grow their business and enhance their competitiveness in seeking out wider export opportunities in an increasingly fast-paced and challenging global marketplace.”

Michael Keogh, founder and Managing Director of The Bite Group said: “There is no doubt that InterTradeIreland’s sales and marketing programmes have helped The Bite Group go from strength to strength - we started out 10 years ago with six employees - we now have 126 staff working from a new, £3m factory supplying customers like Starbucks, Dunnes Stores and Musgrave.

“The FUSION programme provided us with a graduate whose technical skills brought us the accreditation we needed to woo the big players in the retail trade, while Acumen provided us with the support to take on a sales person who helped boost our exports to the Republic from 4% to 62% inside five years.

InterTradeIreland Chief Executive Liam Nellis said: “In 2007 more than 450 firms participated in the organisation’s business networks and trade and business development programmes, generating a total trade value of £10.5m. This represented a total business development value of £42.9m – an increase of £12.1m on the previous year.

“For many of these businesses, participation in our cross-border programmes represented their introduction to formal innovation activity with third level institutes and exporting from their home jurisdiction,” he said.

Acumen is a unique opportunity for companies to reduce the risk of first time exporting and opening up real opportunities for growth.

Notes to Editors:

1. In 2007, InterTradeIreland programmes were responsible for generating a total trade and business development value of £53.4m/€72.65m*, representing a return on investment of 7:1.
2. InterTradeIreland engaged with 1,834 companies from Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, with an additional 493 firms undertaking longer term programmes.
3. More information on the Acumen programme from www.intertradeireland.com or Paddy Savage, Programme Manager, on 028 3083 4100.
4. FUSION is an all-island programme which enables knowledge and technology transfer between business and academia to support innovation and increased capability.
5. For more information on FUSION, contact Dianne Dundas at InterTradeIreland on 028 3083 4191.
6. Media enquiries to DETI Press Office: Tel:028 9052 9297. Out of office hours please contact the Duty Press Officer via pager number 07699 715 440 and your call will be returned.