Exporting to Great Britain

Kathryn Callaghan is an award winning artist from County Down. She creates artwork that celebrates the life people love – whether that be a favourite animal, place, or even a flower or a car.

She supplies interior designers, architects and a range of businesses across the hospitality, healthcare and corporate and retail sectors. She also sells directly to the public via her e-commerce website.

Kathryn, owner of Kathryn Callaghan Fine Art, explains how the business started exporting to Great Britain (GB).

Exporting to GB

“We mainly export to GB and Ireland but sell to Europe and the USA too.”

“We chose GB as an export market due to the ease of shipping and the familiarity in terms of language, vat rules, currency and time zone.”

Advantages and challenges

“There are several advantages of exporting to GB. It is part of the UK so it just feels very familiar. There are no crazy time zone differences to consider, currency fluctuations or complicated export rules. It’s much like dealing with Northern Ireland, but the market is much larger and more affluent in certain geographic areas.”

“The main challenge we faced was when we operated the Sale or Return (SOR) model – as the trips to GB to move or replace stock were expensive and time consuming. However, we now operate a wholesale model so all sales are made outright, and we no longer offer SOR.”

“We also now use an agent located in England who regularly travels across GB to see our customers. This approach removes the need for us to travel as frequently to GB.”

Support and guidance

“We have received support through the Invest NI Trade Accelerator Grant. We aim to increase sales to GB and Ireland, with activities including developing databases of potential trade customers, digital marketing to the B2C audience, design of trade literature, and attendance at trade events.”

“The programme has allowed us to develop a strategic and pro-active approach, utilising the advice of expert consultants.”

Looking to the future

“We have been very successful in getting established with new gallery accounts, through our GB agent. We have also been busy developing new web and digital brochure assets. We are almost ready to begin targeting new B2B customers in the hospitality, healthcare, corporate and retail sectors – using our newly built target customer databases.”

“Going forward, we would like to investigate the US but feel that it is best to finish exploring the UK and Ireland markets.”

“We would also like to develop the B2B side of our business by supplying more interior designers and architects in addition to, business owners across the hospitality, healthcare, corporate and residential sectors. We also plan to raise the profile of our ecommerce store to increase export sales of our art prints online.”