Trade minister visits Blackburn's Hive business network

06 Feb 2013

TRADE Minister Lord Green visited Blackburn with Darwen yesterday and told the borough’s Hive network it was ‘an outstanding example’ of companies working together which the government wanted replicated nationwide.

As he left, Lord Green said: “I shall be working with Hive to promote businesses in Blackburn with Darwen and help them boost their exports.”

Khalid outlined Hive’s aim of making Blackburn “a world-class town” building on its manufacturing heritage, young and ethnically diverse workforce and creative and innovative business community.

Former HSBC Bank boss Lord Green, exports minister in both the Business Department and Foreign Office, addressed the company bosses before taking questions with Blackburn MP Jack Straw.

[quote-feature align="left"]"As a government we want to promote businesses working together, helping each other and sharing expertise, especially in terms of small and medium-sized enterprises breaking into new export markets."[/quote-feature]

Lord Green praised the way larger, export-led companies like Graham and Brown and Lucite were helping smaller companies into the export market through Hive. He said overseas trade was the way out of the current economic difficulties, capitalising on Britain’s world-class reputation for quality.

Lord Green said: “Hive is one of the best examples of businesses working together I have ever seen. I came to Blackburn with Darwen at Jack Straw’s invitation to show that the borough, East Lancashire and manufacturing are important to the government. I intend to work with Hive in future to promote the area and its products worldwide.”

[quote-author]Jack Straw[/quote-author][/quote-block]

Richard Slater, publisher of Lancashire Business View magazine and chair for the meeting, said: "The government has a bold ambition to create 100,000 new export businesses over the next few years. "Jack Straw and Lord Green were united in their determination for Lancashire to be at the heart of this SME revolution."