New Brunswick’s European Opportunity
When many Atlantic Canadian businesses think of growing or exporting, they automatically look to the United States.
But with current trade policies south of the border seeming less stable lately, a New Brunswick consulting firm says it’s time for more businesses in the region expand their markets overseas.
E6 is a Moncton-based consulting firm that offers strategic management and financial services to businesses. The company also helps both Canadian and European companies do transactions which each other, things like extensions and acquisitions.
“I lived in Denmark for almost five years before coming back to New Brunswick and a lot of the stuff I do for these types of transactions is actually giving confidence to entrepreneurs in Atlantic Canada to take the step to explore Europe,’ says Jeff Savoie, owner and CEO of E6. “For a lot of clients, it’s actually more of the psychologist part that we assist [with]. They’ve got the startup business to expand to Europe, but they’re scared to do the move.”
“Because when you talk about Europe, it’s such a big market that you need to have a strategy on where to start, which country to focus first, so we help them establish that strategy to penetrate the European market.”
Savoie says few New Brunswick companies are expanding across the pond, but with the current climate in the United States, he says that’s starting to change.
“To be honest, a lot of New Brunswick companies are overexposed to the U.S. market and with the recent developments in the U.S. regarding the NAFTA agreement, the uncertainty around it. [But] I’m getting a lot more calls for companies looking to diversify,” he says “And the CETA free trade agreement that just came into play, it’s actually a very good timing to do that.”
CETA, also known as the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement, is a newly enacted agreement between Canada and the European Union that eliminates 98 per cent of the tariffs between Canada and the EU. Savoie says this gives New Brunswick fishery and agriculture companies, in particular, a lot of opportunities, but not many are taking advantage yet.
Meanwhile, he says agriculture companies from the western provinces like Alberta and Saskatchewan are making the moves.
“When you’re looking at Europe, it’s 28 countries at the moment. It’s one of the largest economies in the world, 500 million people,” says Savoie. “So it’s a very good diversification and we’re strategically positioned, especially in New Brunswick to take advantage of that.”
Yet, Europe can seem thousands of miles away for some businesses, maybe because it literally is, But Savoie says the key to growing your market overseas is to create a solid, realistic plan.
“Often what we feel is missing is they’re trying to capture the full European market from day one. Depending on the product, it may make more sense to start with a smaller country in Europe,” says Savoie. “Or it might be better to go to a country that we’re more used to like France, maybe the U.K, even though there’s Brexit coming in, there’s a still a lot of planning that needs to be taken into consideration … Having a good understanding of the risks helps to have a much better strategy to expand to a new market.”