Yoomoo leads the way for Export Week

To celebrate Export Week (10-14 November ) in the UK, Amanda Gestener, co-founder of yoomoo, a frozen yogurt business, has featured in a guide for first-time exporters regarding its experience with a UKTI trade mission. ‘From Local to Global’, fronted by Dragons’ Den investor and government export ambassador Kelly Hoppen, includes examples of women-led companies that have successfully cracked international markets such as luxury chocolate maker, Amelia Rope, children seat belt makers, Belt Up Kidz and Chinese sauce manufacturer, Sweet Mandarin. Amanda Gestener has featured as part of yoomoo’s experience in choosing to go international. From Local to Global forms part of the Business is GREAT Britain campaign, led by UK Trade & Investment and the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.

Gerstener notes, “We loved frozen yogurt following a trip to Los Angeles in 2009 and decided to be the next UK Ben & Jerry’s. We secured a concession in Harrods and worked closely with UKTI to gain advice about expanding our brand overseas, helping us to think strategically about where we should target. We visited Dubai to meet with UKTI contacts and soon secured a partnership with the Sharaf Group, one of the Middle East’s largest retail organisations.
“We’ve worked with UKTI to expand yoomoo into the Asian market too. They helped with our launch event in Thailand and invited us to a trade mission in Shanghai. We now sell over three million pots of yogurt annually in seven countries, including Thailand, Switzerland, Spain and the UAE, as well as the UK. Selling overseas is crucial to our success – at least one third of our sales come from international markets.”

The guide is available now to view online at www.gov.uk/government/publications/from-local-to-global-how-to-expand-your-business-overseas.

Export Week is organised by UK Trade & Investment (UKTI) to encourage small and medium-sized businesses to seek customers overseas with over 90 events across the UK and over 6,000 businesses expected to attend. There will also be over 130 export specialists from more than 70 countries.