- Europages Observatory publishes the preliminary results of
a study on the export performance of German SMEs
PARIS, Sept. 6 /Xinhua-PRNewswire/ --
Europages, the European Business Directory, has announced the preliminary results of a study conducted by the institute OpinionWay on behalf of the Europages Observatory on the export performance of German SMEs. In all, 1,007 German SME exporters took part in the study in order to determine the following: the countries to which they export, strong points of their products and services and companies they consider to be competitors. The study also reveals German SMEs' preferred communication means for exporting.
44% of the companies polled employ between 10 and 49 employees, and 35%, between 50 and 199. Exports represented 40% of sales for nearly half of the companies polled and 90% of them have been exporting for at least five years.
The companies polled are optimistic about the future and 61% anticipate increased sales in the coming year. German SMEs, export champions, focus their activity on the markets of the 15 original member countries of the European Union (89%), but are equally interested in new members of the EU (57%), North America (43%), and Central and Eastern Asia (43% and 41%). Even the Middle-East, South America, and Africa benefit from products exported from Germany at rates of 34%, 30%, and 25%, respectively.
German export companies rely above all on the quality of their products; indeed, 90% of the companies polled believe that quality and know-how are the main strengths of their products and services. As such, they mostly fear other German competitors: 66% of SMEs polled believe that their stiffest competition is based in other states (5% in the same region), while only a third believes that their competition comes from the 15 original EU-member countries. The United States, Canada, and Mexico were considered competitors by only 9% of companies polled and only 8% of them view China as a threat to their export activities.
The strategy of German export companies is to enter the international market as quickly as possible: 90% of companies polled offer websites in foreign languages, with a preference for English. 85% of companies consider the Internet a way to get their name out, and 78% do so via trade shows.
"With this study, Europages has added to the analysis of German SMEs' export performance and, thanks to this, can offer its services to optimize communication and export activities," explains Paolo Giuri, Europages' CEO.
Europages' complete study is available online and can be downloaded free of charge at http://www.europages.com .
About EUROPAGES:
EUROPAGES, the European Business Directory, is Europe's professional reference tool, bringing together 700,000 companies selected for their dynamism in the import and export fields, in every area of activity in 35 countries.
www.europages.com is available in 26 languages: French, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Dutch, Swedish, Danish, Finnish, Hungarian, Polish, Portuguese, Slovenian, Turkish, Greek, Russian, Norwegian, Romanian, Estonian, Czech, Lithuanian, Latvian, Bulgarian, simplified and traditional Chinese, and Arabic.
EUROPAGES' shareholders comprise three of the main Yellow Pages publishers in Europe: SEAT Pagine Gialle (Turin, Italy), Yell Publicidad (Madrid, Spain) and DeTeMedien (Deutsche Telekom - Frankfurt, Germany). Europages employs approximately 80 individuals with 20 different nationalities and who can speak 16 languages. Website: http://www.europages.com
