Kristy Dorsey
A FOCUS on Eastern Europe combined with the linguistic skills of a Russian-speaking export director boosted overseas sales by household products manufacturer Sanmex International by 42% last year to #5m, some #400,000 ahead of budget.
The Rutherglen firm, which has a total turnover of about #20m, expects its exports to rise a further 25% to #6.25m in the coming year.
A lot of this growth will come from the former Eastern Bloc countries, which already account for #2.5m of sales abroad.
Sanmex, which is owned by managing director Allan Groden and his family, produces household products such as air freshener and furniture polish as well as personal care items like body sprays.
It is not possible to locally-manufacture most of these goods in Eastern Europe, thus paving the way for Sanmex's expansion.
''We produce mainly aerosols, which requires high-technology machinery and heavy investment,'' export director Stuart Dale said.
''At the moment they don't have that in Russia and the rest of the Eastern Bloc.
''There are a lot of companies (exporting aerosols out of the UK), but we are probably one of the most successful at it, at least in Eastern Europe.''
Dale added that the company's Charm air freshener was the market leader in Lithuania, which he visited last week as part of Sanmex's on-going drive to boost sales abroad.
The company hopes to expand further in Western Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Australia, all of which are areas where it already has a limited presence.
Sanmex also sees room for growth in its domestic market, where it produces washing-up liquids, fabric conditioners and similar products for the likes of Tesco, Kwik Save and Superdrug.
Bob Darracott, the head of economic development at South Lanarkshire Council, said Sanmex's export success was good news for the company's 220 employees.
The North and South Lanarkshire Councils in conjunction with Scottish Trade International and Lanarkshire Development Agency helped set up the region's Export Partnership, which assisted Sanmex in developing its overseas business.
''We're delighted this local business has been so successful abroad, an achievement we hope many more of our indigenous companies will follow with the help of the Export Partnership,'' Darracott said.
n Household chemicals group Jeyes yesterday announced it was in talks which could lead to it being taken over.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article