To explore further into international business, I'll be bringing your views from some of our BMF International Committee members.

To start, I spoke with David Coleman, managing director of Barton Marine Equipment and chair of the BMF International Committee.

Following the company's success at the recent Franco-British Awards in Paris, when it was awarded a 'Highly Commended' for its partnership with Plastimo, I asked David what was the secret to the successful relationship.  

'Looking at Barton's distributor relationships as a whole, 90% of the distributors are long-term partners such as Belship in Holland, Lindemann in Germany and of course Plastimo.  With Plastimo, the partnership has progressed to the level that we are now a 'strategic partner'.  This provides a framework for us to work together on new product design and develop tailored packaging for European markets.'

David also went on to say;

'Plastimo has provided a route to market for Barton in the UK, Spain and Sweden, which has been instrumental in achieving significant growth.'

An interesting point is the balance of working with distributors and boatbuilders in the same market.  'The relationship between a distributor and OEM account is not always easy.  At Barton there is no set formula and we treat each case on an individual basis.  Often OEM orders require an element of specialisation which drives the enquiry directly to us.'

Finally David shares his vision for the biggest opportunity for Barton: 'The US really, where we have set up our own distribution as Barton US, working with a well known and respected company and we are already seeing encouraging results.  We are hoping like many other businesses for a change in the $ exchange rate which is having a direct impact on growth.'

Toby Allies is director of international development at the British Marine Federation (BMF)