Guest blog by Amita Randhawa, UKTI Regional Director, North-East USA
Though August is traditionally a quiet month, New York has been positively buzzing over the past few weeks. Following the exciting arrival on 1 August of our new Consul-General, Danny Lopez, we welcomed Susan Haird, acting Chief Executive of UK Trade & Investment, last week for an extensive programme of engagements. Susan’s programme addressed the London 2012 Olympics, Tech City (the East London home of one of the largest concentrations of small, fast-growing digital technology companies in Europe), and opportunities in the infrastructure, retail and hospitality markets.
A highlight of Susan’s two day trip was a dinner held at Consul-General Lopez’s residence that brought together companies from the US retail and hospitality sectors. We are seeing an increasing number of US companies in retail and hospitality sectors looking to expand into the UK market and to make the most of new opportunities presented by the 2012 Olympics. The UK retail sector is the third largest in the world after the USA and Japan, and sales have steadily grown over the recent years to almost £300 billion a year. London recorded retail sales of £62 billion last year – that’s more than LA, Milan, Rome, Madrid and Berlin combined! That figure should be boosted by the arrival of several more of the world’s leading retail brands to the UK: Victoria’s Secret opens its flagship London store next year, the company’s first in Europe; Tory Burch, another hugely popular US brand, has seen a strong first year for its new London store; and Sushi Samba’s new restaurants are coming to London early in 2012.
Susan’s visit was capped off by a breakfast launch of UK Trade & Investment’s new network of trans-Atlantic businesswomen, which was graciously hosted by Ernst & Young. The next meeting of our network will cover opportunities in the Information & Communications Technologies (ICT) sector and Tech City, which Susan explored with a range of innovative US start-ups and venture capitalists during her visit. We’re greatly looking forward to developing this initiative and discussing a wide range of sectors over the coming months.