"Overseas buyers are always on the hunt for great brands. It is very rewarding to connect businesses and buyers and watch them grow."
Simon Bullen, Founder
About Your Business
At Export Partners we can help build your international business quickly, successfully and sustainably, helping you find your way through the maze, whilst maintaining the integrity of your brand, making sure it is seen in the right places.
Your business will have access to our expertise as well as our 'black book' of contacts, built up over 30 years of selling brands all over the world.
The Export Partners' Services
Bringing together the right experts at the right time, to build your business overseas.
Tailored to you. Here are some of the services we offer.
MARKET ENTRY STRATEGY
Planning The Best Approach
Export covers a big area, so it's worth taking time to save time, by working out which markets are right for your business. We can identify the best markets for your brand to enter, the best route to market and the best partners to work with. We can develop with you your entire international business plan.
RECRUITMENT & TRAINING
Getting The Right Team Together
Good people are the key to business success. In addition to our own skills and capabilities, we work with highly experienced recruitment and commercial skills training specialists, to help bring in the right commercial people - whether permanent, interim, internal or outsourced - to grow your export business and equip them with the skills to deal successfully with your customers all over the world.
​
​
INTRODUCTIONS & SALES
Expert Guidance & Contacts
Knowing who to talk to and where to find the information you need is fundamental to export success. We draw on our experience, expertise and contacts to introduce your business to retailers, local partners and information providers, to give you the best chance of success. We can review and improve existing export businesses. We can also operate as your ongoing export sales management service.
MARKET RESEARCH
​
Targeting Markets and Consumers
Know your market. Expert guidance to identify the right markets or to develop or tailor your brand proposition and communication to the right audience.
MARKETING ACTIVITY
Making the Right Investment
Getting a listing is one thing, holding onto it is something else altogether. The Export Partners can plan the most effective  marketing activities to ensure repeat sales and grow market share
PUBLIC SPEAKING
Guidance and Advice - 'Do's & 'Dont's'
It's good to talk. We've spoken at industry events about successes and learnings, designed to help exporting companies succeed. Contact us if you have an event coming up. We'd be pleased to get involved
Our Work
​
The Export Partners solves each client’s issues by providing a comprehensive approach backed by our team of experienced professionals. We can help make that process quicker and easier, by supporting you as little or as much as you need, with the right management resource to grow your business quickly, sustainably and profitably. Here are a few examples of our work.
Jordans Cereals
Creating a new category in 6 countries.
Having built a successful premium health food business in the UK, Jordans cereals wanted to start exporting. As the business needed to establish a new category, premium adult cereals, we focused on launching in 6 key European markets initially, and took a flexible route to market in each, using a blend of distributors, direct selling to retailers and setting up a subsidiary in France. We won the Queens Award for export for all the efforts. Senior management commitment was key to success. Jordans is now part of AB Foods.
Gü Desserts
Restoring growth and profitability for this innovative premium brand
Often our clients have already established a successful international business but hit some bumps in the road. They need the experience and support to steady the ship and reset the course for the next level.
We worked on this project for 18 months and through persistence and patience made the core business simpler and more profitable and able to progress, whilst winning new business with an international retail customer across several European markets.
Fortnum & Mason
French market entry in the right stores for this exclusive and iconic British brand
An exercise in where not to be as much as which channels and customers to sell to. Avoiding major grocery retailers and focussing on high end department stores with excellent point of sale presence, in France and elsewhere, guaranteed the desirability and exclusivity of the brand; essential for its continued prosperity.
Tabasco
Consumer-led strategy to grow an icon
Tabasco is an Icon; instantly recognisable and available everywhere. Export Partners manage the business for them across Western Europe. The challenge here is not about driving more distribution touch points, it is working with the best-in-class industry partners, such as Unilever, market by market, in both grocery and foodservice to develop both trade and consumer led marketing plans to drive usage and relevance.
Fentimans
Channel strategy. Getting into grocery
Fentimans is a premium botanically brewed range of adult soft drinks and mixers. It has been very successful in establishing itself in the right places in the out of home channels across multiple countries. Export Partners role is to help increase the brand presence in grocery in agreed key countries to accelerate the growth and grow consumer touchpoints.
Simon is both a fierce advocate of international trade but also has the experience, know-how and contacts to drive a noticeable impact on sales performance from day one. With fluency in multiple languages and an international mindset, I believe he would hit the ground running in most organisations looking to exploit export opportunities overseas.
Simon worked closely with me on the development of our UK strategy, as well as that of our international partners and distributors, but what stood out was his willingness to get involved, attending key meetings with major UK retailers, and supporting my team when they needed the additional gravitas that he brings to any meeting.
Oliver Pinkus, Head of International sales, Piccolo Foods
Kevin Sperling, Sales Director Robinson Young
A Bit About The Founder
The Export Partners is lead by Simon Bullen, aided by an exceptional team of specialists to meet each client's specific needs.
Simon Bullen
Founder
​
Simon has spent over 30 years building UK/US consumer brands across Europe, The US, The Middle East, Africa and most other parts of the globe. He's sold direct to retailers as well as through agents, distributors and subsidiaries and on behalf of entrepreneurs, private equity backed and large blue chip companies.
Simon has a track record of delivering profitable export sales growth through new market entry, management and development. He has been there and done it and has the war stories to prove it.
He speaks at public events on the subject and is an advisor to The Food and Drink Federation on growing exports, a key industry and government initiative.
​
Simon has an MBA, an International Marketing qualification and a degree in Modern Languages. He speaks English, French, German, Spanish and Italian, although it was probably the family holidays to Italy as a child, which sparked his passion for international business and languages. That and Italian food. Simon also has a degree in perseverance, an essential quality to develop international sales.