Almost 900,000 UK businesses missing out on opportunities to export

Experian analysed over 40,000 UK companies currently exporting to profile their components and better understand what an exporting business looks like. The key characteristics identified include:

  • more than 20 employees;
  • multiple locations and significant geographical coverage of the UK market;
  • a strong commercial credit rating;
  • employing a large, sophisticated auditor / accountant.

This model was then mapped across the entire UK business population to uncover which companies have many of the identified components and, therefore, have the potential to export, but are not reporting any export turnover.

The analysis revealed that six of the top ten locations where the biggest percentage of businesses matching the model of an exporting company were based in Scotland. Aberdeen has the highest proportion of businesses in the UK (26.7 per cent) that have a number of the characteristics associated with an exporting company yet don’t file exporting revenue.

Three of the top ten areas where businesses have a high potential to export are in London. East Central (EC), West Central (WC) and West (W) have a high level of companies that could export but don’t currently.

Max Firth, UK Managing Director for Experian’s Business Information Services division, said: “Trading internationally contributes significantly to business and economic growth for specific regions and industries across the UK. When you consider that of the known exporting population, the average amount of turnover attributed to exporting is approximately 50 per cent, the companies identified could potentially double their income capacity by exporting.