THREE North Yorkshire companies have been exploring their export potential in Spain.

Acceleris Marketing and Communications from Harrogate, BNL (Bearings) from Knaresborough and British Horse Feeds of Masham have been at the fifth Yorkshire and Humber International Business Network (IBN) overseas event.

They were among 14 Yorkshire companies which along with 200 businesses and agencies in Barcelona, gathered in the historic Council Room of Barcelona’s Chamber of Commerce.

The North Yorkshire visitors were matched with potential business partners in a series of private meetings organised by teams from UK Trade and Investment (UKTI) based in both Yorkshire and Barcelona. Catalonia is home to a number of emerging high- growth, industries including creative and media.

Mark Watkins, business development manager for BNL (UK) in Knaresborough, said: “This introduction programme to an overseas market is a fantastic way to meet both potential customers and contacts in a targeted region.

“With the help and guidance from both our local and overseas UKTI teams, I’m sure BNL will be able to move forward with developing our European export sales.”

Peter Davenport, managing director of Acceleris, said this was his second overseas IBN event, following Milan in 2008.

He said: “The IBN format is ideal for small and medium sized businesses as it packs a lot of business information and activity into a short amount of time. This makes it a very cost-effective exploration of the overseas markets.

“At Acceleris we are working to build up an international network with similar sized agencies in key European markets as well as exploring opportunities to handle PR and communications in the UK for Spanish- based businesses. In Barcelona I had talks with four separate firms, all of which could develop into future business partners.” Simon Parker, sales and marketing manager of British Horse Feeds, said: “This is the third overseas IBN we have attended with UKTI, and we are finding these short but intensive exposures to foreign markets extremely useful alongside our overall export plan.”