Take the plunge
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We in Centrax Gears Ltd have just returned from participating in the BAUMA Exhibition in Munich, which is perhaps the most important construction industry show in the world. It has left in our minds questions about how seriously Britain is taking the Common Market.
We have recently ended an arrangement by which we produced axles under licence from a United States company and have developed our own British range, particularly suited to European and North American requirements. As the British axle manufacturer we found ourselves selling against strong French and German rivals, but in nearly all other areas the British competition was nonexistent. In fact, only 11 British companies exhibited at the Show out of almost 1000 firms from 21 countries.
Even at Government level, Britain seems prepared to play the new boy sitting at the bottom of the class.
While we were grateful for the Department of Trade and Industry's assistance in taking part in the Exhibition and for the cheap facilities they offered, we are, I think, not alone among UK exhibitors in feeling that we would have been very willing to pay more for a better deal. The comparison was rather one of carpets and crested crockery in indoor German stands as against garden sheds in the cold for the British.
To those British companies who have products that are as good and may be better than those of their European competitors may we offer encouragement to take the individual plunge into Europe — we gained 12 new customers at BAUMA and strengthened links with 20 other potential buyers.
And to the Department of Trade and Industry may we say: "Please give us a suitably presentable stall in what is a very tough market-place".
hi. M. BONE, • Sales Executive Centrax Gears Ltd, Newton Abbot, Devon.