Sesame Access were delighted to be featured in a press release by HSBC focusing on rapidly growing SMEs embarking onto the international stage:
'A Surrey manufacturer specialising in disabled access goods has received praise from the UK trade minister Lord Livingston after boosting its exports with support from HSBC.
Sesame Access, a family-run business based near Weybridge since 1999, has built bespoke wheelchair lifts and access platforms for iconic heritage sites like the Supreme Court and Cambridge University using HSBC’s business banking services. By 2012, the company was exporting to Europe, where its first lifts were installed across Apple stores in Germany and France. And just this past June, Sesame appeared on the BBC2 architecture documentary series ‘Building Dream Homes’, which showcased the successful installation of a Sesame Access lift in a Grade A Listed Georgian property built in 1807.
Today, the business is eyeing expansion into the Scandinavia, North America and the Middle East, and will seek additional funding from HSBC for this growth. international business centres we now have in Warsaw, Shanghai, Istanbul in partnership with UKTI?
Visiting the firm, Minister of State for Trade Lord Livingston said: “We know that businesses that export grow the fastest. Sesame Access is an innovative engineering company whose products will be in demand around the world. UKTI is able to help them expand into new markets as we do with thousands of companies across the South East. If you are a smaller company looking to export, contact UKTI at – www.gov.uk/UKTI.”
Sesame Access is currently securing new orders worldwide, including a planned November launch to Parisian architects. To support this growth, HSBC has extended the company foreign exchange services to help them to secure global contracts while remaining competitively priced, as well as working capital facilities. International business centres jointly run by HSBC and UKTI in cities including Warsaw, Shanghai, and Istanbul are also available.
Alison Lyons, Director of Commercial Development for Sesame Access, said: “We are really proud that HSBC identified Sesame as a fast-growth and inspiring SME. We have found HSBC’s business development seminars and networking opportunities to be very helpful because we had big plans to expand our business overseas. We plan to seek further financing from HSBC in the very near future as we are receiving a lot of interest for our ‘invisible lifts’ from North America, the Middle East, and Scandinavia.”
Dean Lochrie, HSBC’s Area Commercial Director for Guildford and Surrey, said: “Sesame Access has been our customer for over 16 years and in that time we have seen it grow from a UK-based business into one that is exporting worldwide. We have been proud to support this business with this expansion, in conjunction with the UKTI.
“Sesame Access is a prime example of an ambitious UK SME taking advantage of HSBC’s international capabilities and trade expertise to grow its business internationally. It is also an example of one of many businesses benefitting from the improving UK economic environment. HSBC launched earlier this year a £1.1 billion fund to support ambitious UK businesses like Sesame Access in the South and East with their growth plans, and specifically within the Guildford and Surrey Commercial Centre we have £100 million of funds to help support local SMEs.”'