ST IVES companies excelled in Government awards aimed at helping new and inexperienced exporters become more effective and develop sustainable export growth. Former Hunts Post Business Awards winner, Le Mark, which develops and manufactures specialist sel

ST IVES companies excelled in Government awards aimed at helping new and inexperienced exporters become more effective and develop sustainable export growth.

Former Hunts Post Business Awards winner, Le Mark, which develops and manufactures specialist self-adhesive products, triumphed in the innovative marketing arena after changing its branding to make products more user-friendly in Eastern European markets.

The judges said the company "has set up dedicated resource to liaise regularly with overseas distributors to make them feel part of the team, and provide them with customised promotional literature in their own language. Its products are now branded in five languages, and it has agreed its first joint venture in Russia."

And Weltech, which specialises in poultry weighing, control and monitoring equipment, was highly commended in the UK Trade & Investment East of England Passport to Export awards after recently signing up distributors in Brazil and Mexico, as reported in The Hunts Post in December.

Le Mark's managing director, Stuart Gibbons, said the competition had been fierce, not just in Cambridgeshire but across the eastern region. "But we have tried to out-think and out-perform our competitors," he added.

The company's products are now branded in five languages - English, French, German, Polish and Russian - with supporting literature available in each tongue to support overseas agents and partners. "It makes them feel part of the Le Mark family," Mr Gibbons said.

The company's latest move was a joint-venture agreement with a Muscovite firm, which believed Le Mark's products had huge potential in the extensive Russian market. The Russian partner specialises in special effects, a good match for Le Mark's adhesive stage coverings.

"In Dubai, our products have to perform in temperatures up to 40 degrees Celsius," Mr Gibbons said. "In Russia they must still work at minus 40 degrees. The first test there is to put them into the deep freeze and see how they come out.

"We may not be the cheapest brand. It's the quality that sells.