Scottish Enterprise Borders has welcomed a report which places the Borders top in exporting in Scotland.

BORDERS TOPS EXPORTING LEAGUE

A new league table has been published showing which postcode areas in Scotland have the highest concentration of industrial exporters.

The Scottish Borders area leads the table with 54% of the industrial companies surveyed, involved in exporting.  In all, the league table represents more than 2,000 Scottish companies in 13 different postcode catchments.

The table has been compiled by the Kompass business directory (www.Kompass.com) - a division of Reed Business Information.  “We thought it would be helpful to look beyond the export data of the country as a whole and see where the regional hotspots actually are,” says Justine Gillen, product manager at Kompass. “The results make interesting reading with some of the less densely populated catchments doing rather better than the metropolitan ones.  That said, even if some regions only have a third of industrial companies exporting, it is still a healthy picture.”

Peter Maley, International Business Manager at Scottish Enterprise Borders, said: “This is really good news for the Borders.  Local companies are always interested in new ways of engaging with customers overseas. We know there is a great deal of export activity going on through our ongoing work with companies such as Peter Scott & Co. In the last year they’ve won a Scottish Council Development and Industry Award for exporting as well as announcing plans to attack new markets overseas.  Great news for the Borders – and proof that it’s not just urban firms that can compete in international markets.”

Concentration of Exporters by Postcode’ / Source: Kompass July ‘04
1. Borders (TD) - 54.4%
2. Aberdeen (AB) - 53.3%
3. Kirkaldy (KY) - 51.8%
4. Dundee (DD) - 51.4%
5. Paisley (PA) - 46.0%
6. Kilmarnock (KA) - 44.4%
7. Motherwell (ML) - 44.0%
8. Dumfries (DG) - 43.3%
9. Perth (PH) - 41.2%
10. Edinburgh (EH) - 39.4%
11. Glasgow (G) - 38.0%
12. Inverness (IV) - 34.8%
13. Falkirk (FK) - 30.2%

Press release issued by Fiona Duff, PR Contractor, on behalf of Scottish Enterprise Borders.  For further information contact: 0131 473 2347 / 07879 444079 or fiona.duff@scotent.co.uk