Pictured above: Guy and Jo Schanschieff

An award-winning cotton nappy manufacturer from Northamptonshire has global trade all wrapped up, thanks to support from UK Trade and Investment's (UKTI) Gateway to Global Growth programme.

Brixworth-based Bambino Mio was established in 1997 by husband and wife team Guy and Jo Schanschieff to produce environmentally friendly re-useable cotton nappies. The company employs 21 staff in the UK and uses third party manufacturers to produce its products in Derbyshire, Leicestershire, China and Lithuania.

The company originally found its feet trading with small independent baby shops and national UK retailers such as Mothercare, Boots and Asda, however, today, more than 60 per cent of its business comes from 70 countries worldwide.

It was an international trade show, 'Kind and Jungend', in Cologne, Germany, which inspired Managing Director Guy to seriously investigate exporting to overseas markets. He made contact with UKTI, joined the Passport to Export scheme in 2002 and has sought the support from UKTI ever since.

Guy said: "The Passport to Export scheme helped me sit back and reflect on our strategy and focus on where we wanted to take the business.

"The advice I received from my International Trade Adviser and the access to Government funds to help finance international market visits was invaluable. As a small business the cost of attending overseas meetings and trade shows can restrict how much you can do and really limit your business potential."

Bambino Mio has gone from strength to strength and recently accessed tailor-made training and support, through the Gateway to Global Growth programme, aimed at small to medium sized companies with between two and 10 years export experience, to increase overseas sales and access new markets.

Through the programme, Guy and his export managers attended a 'Building Business with Agents and Distributors' workshop which they found really useful and have changed some of their procedures around distributor management as a result.

And with hopes of cracking China, Germany, the Middle East, and South America, they spent time working with UKTI to identify potential distributors.

UKTI International Trade Advisor, Jane Waldron, who has worked with the company for over eight years, said: "Guy's company has grown from a small team operating in the UK only, to an international business. Their success is very much due to Guy's willingness to access external assistance from the UKTI network and also from external experts in language and culture.

"Gateway to Global Growth is helping to evaluate their current business strategy to make internal changes within the company to ensure they can develop new markets and manage their growth in new areas of the world in a strategic way. They are fine tuning their approach to their current international activity and have reviewed their product sourcing bringing some manufacture back to the UK.

"Our International Strategy Workshop, an integral part of our Gateway Programme, has given Bambino Mio the opportunity to sit back and really look at their strategies, think about where they want to be and work with us to find ways of achieving this."

Bambino Mio's approach to international business was recognised by UKTI at its annual awards in November 2009. The company scooped the International Business Communication Award for the second year running for how it successfully communicates with distributors and customers in 24 languages.

Father of three, Guy (44), from Northampton, added: "It's amazing to think the business started off from an idea my wife and I got during our nine month round the world career break back in 1991.

"We first heard about reuseable nappies from an American tourist when we visited the Taj Mahal in India and then saw the cotton nappy cleaning services which were common in Australia at the time.

"In a bid to replicate this idea in the UK, we came back to Northampton and started our own laundry service for four years, until the opportunity came up to start Bambino Mio and we haven't looked back since!"