Emergency evacuation equipment manufactured in Northampton could one day help save lives in the Middle East.

Alison Hayward of Spectrum Healthcare based in Dallington is joining a UK Trade & Investment market visit to Dubai next week. She will be marketing the firm's emergency evacuation equipment at The Arab Healthcare Congress and Exhibition, the second largest healthcare show in the world. And if Spectrum's recent export success is anything to go by the company could be coming away with some potentially lucrative sales leads.

Spectrum and its sister company Hospital Aids specialise in the supply of evacuation equipment, moving & handling equipment and mobility aids for hospitals, care homes, hospices and anywhere else where people with limited mobility might need to be evacuated in an emergency. They manufacture much of the equipment in Northamptonshire and employ 15 people. Their most well known products are the Ski Pad and Ski Sheet which are used as emergency aids by NHS hospitals for transporting people quickly when wheelchairs, beds and stretchers are not an option.

With the help of UKTI's Passport to Export programme Spectrum has grown its exports by around 10% in the last year - and that's at a time when many countries are in recession. Sales and Marketing manager Steve Clark says;

"As Spectrum was new to exporting we got support through UKTI's Passport to Export programme last year.  As well as giving us valuable advice and guidance the scheme has helped us to travel to a major trade fair in Dusseldorf resulting in distributor contacts in Spain, Canada, Holland, the USA and Ireland. Now we're hoping to repeat this success in Dubai next week."

Alison and three other East Midlands healthcare companies will travel to Dubai with Brian Hickmott, one of UKTI's International Trade Advisers. He says:

"The UAE is the largest export market in the Middle East, with around £3.6 billion worth of goods and services exported from the UK. It is also one of UKTI's designated high growth markets, so we're keen to help companies in the East Midlands exploit the lucrative business opportunities that are on offer.

"Market visits are a great way for businesses like Spectrum to gain an in-depth understanding of their target market and to meet potential customers. "

Spectrum will be exhibiting its evacuation equipment and a new product, the Ergo Kneeler which they are developing with Leicester's De Montfort University Design Unit. Steve says:

"Our sales recently have been helped along by UK legislation and fire regulations requiring public buildings to provide a certain standard of emergency evacuation equipment for the less mobile.  Health organisations such as care homes can no longer just rely on the emergency services to provide this.

"We've sold well in the UK so the time was right to look overseas where similar legislation is in the pipeline. They don't have this law in the UAE yet, but they do have huge public buildings, very modern hospitals and a burgeoning healthcare market so we are hopeful that buyers there will be very receptive to our products."

Spectrum has also just visited New Zealand where similar legislation is coming in and, with further help for UKTI more business is in the pipeline. There's another product, the Ski Sled just launched and an additional production plant in Russia being considered. It's an exciting time for the Northants company with a (thankfully) little-used but none-the-less vital product to sell.

Some export facts and figures about the UAE:

·  In 2009 UK exports of goods and services were worth £5.2 billion to the UAE

·  The UK and UAE governments have committed to increasing bilateral trade to £12 billion by 2015, a 60% from current trade levels worth some £7.5 billion.

·   In the first nine months of this year, UK exports of goods to the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region were worth £10.5 billion, up 17% on this time last year.

·   In 2009, the Gulf was the UK's seventh largest export market globally.

·   Middle Eastern investments in the UK include major high-value projects such as the South Hook LNG Terminal, the £1.5 billion London Gateway, and the London Array offshore wind farm.