Previous Midlands Regional Winner: C. Brandauer & Co – Tell us how they benefited from the competition

“As a company, our network is so much wider and I’m now in touch with some of the top entrepreneurs and business leaders in the UK.”

For C. Brandauer & Co, being named a regional winner and attending the National Finals of the Global Connections competition was an ideal way to celebrate its 150th anniversary.

“The competition has been an excellent experience from start to finish,” says Sales & Marketing Director Rowan Crozier.

“As a company, our network is so much wider and I’m now in touch with some of the top entrepreneurs and business leaders in the country. Beyond that, I’ve had four requests for quotations from the competition already and these could well lead to new business in the next three to four years.”

Brandauer, a specialist in precision presswork and stamping, now exports 75% of what it makes and sells into markets throughout the world, but that global expansion has been a gradual process, as Crozier explains:

“We work with global blue-chip companies and OEMs and we’ve partnered with them to piggy-back into new markets. We’ve done that very successfully with one customer where we started supplying them in Ireland, before moving into Eastern Europe and the Middle East, then the USA, South America and eventually China.

“For us the key has been finding a soft entry point to new overseas markets by expanding business internationally step-by- step rather than targeting multiple territories.

“This approach, coupled with working with customers who have the necessary exporting experience, has de-risked the process of global growth for an SME like Brandauer.”

Global Connections 2014 Competition is now open: Visit the site