Department for Business and Trade (DBT) is on the hunt for British SMEs that have mastered trading overseas for it’s ‘Made in the UK, Sold to the World Awards’, here’s how you can enter

The British beauty industry is an exporting superpower, with more than 65% of its businesses trading globally. That’s 15% more than the wider economic average of 50% – pretty impressive, right?

We want to make sure that the beauty businesses with great trading success stories are getting the recognition they deserve. The Department for Business and Trade’s ‘Made in the UK, Sold to the World Awards’ are designed to do just that, by highlighting SMEs that have a unique story to tell when it comes to global expansion. 

Charting ten categories – from food and agriculture to retail and consumer goods – the competition will celebrate small businesses from across the UK.

With entries closing on the 14th January 2024, the British Beauty Council is encouraging brands to enter so that their success stories are presented to a panel of experts at DBT and Marco Forgione, Director General of the Institute of Export and International Trade.

In order to apply, brands and businesses must:

• Clearly demonstrate how selling internationally has helped grow and improve their business – including across sales, culture, employment etc – with robust statistical evidence.
• Tell compelling stories about selling internationally. This can be an unexpected market that you’ve broken into, unusual or difficult circumstances that you have had to overcome to succeed in selling internationally, or perhaps there is a unique seasonality or sustainability angle that the business has taken in its quest to go global.
• Demonstrate a passion for selling their products or services to the world.

Previous winners of the ‘Made in the UK, Sold to the World Awards’ include Crowd – a Dorset-based marketing agency that sells 70% of their services overseas – and Little Moons – a mochi brand that now trades in 28 countries across the world.

Do you have a similar story to tell relating to your time-saving beauty manufacturing solution or multi-SKU colour brand?

Find out more and enter the competition today

If you are interested in finding out more about trading overseas, head to the British Beauty Council Trade Hub.