Koper, 31 May 2012 – At yesterday’s meeting of Slovenian export companies at the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Slovenia, Banka Koper presented its new service TradeWay for companies trying to break into and expand their business to foreign markets. The service allows companies to present their activities in the international arena as well as gather information on existing or potential business partners from various countries.
Due to numerous changes in the Slovenian economy, it is clear that the orientation of Slovenian companies towards foreign markets is of increasing importance. That is why Banka Koper, as the first bank in Slovenia, together with an experienced team of experts at the parent banking group Intesa Sanpaolo has decided to offer the TradeWay service to exporters and importers looking to position themselves on the international market and expand their network of business partners abroad.
Tradeway is a comprehensive information service that includes three options: Presentation Window, Business Partners Search and Other Services. Presentation Window allows the company to present itself on international promotion networks and receive regular notifications on offers and possibilities on the chosen market. Business Partners Search enables the searching of business partners in various countries. Other Services enables the company to obtain documentation and market and financial data on existing or potential foreign business partners.
TradeWay is run by an experienced group of 30 experts in the Section for the support of small, medium-sized and large companies in the process of internationalisation of the Intesa Sanpaolo Group, specialised in gathering market, financial and other data on foreign companies and operating other professional services directed towards expansion to foreign markets.
The main advantages of TradeWay services are the simplicity of the procedure of concluding a contract between the bank and the service user and the relatively low service costs. Another advantage is the guarantee of the user’s anonymity when connecting with potential business partners, thus also ensuring more secure data transmission.
Sharing their experience regarding company internationalisation with the numerous participants at the meeting were, among others, the representative of the internationally successful Illy Group, Stefano Tamaro, who shared his long-term experience with the sale of coffee on various foreign markets, and Marko Lotrič, who recounted the Slovenian success story of the family company Lotrič Laboratory for Metrology.
The speakers agreed that one of the keys to succeeding abroad was that, at the beginning of the business expansion, every exporter should find a business partner with the same “business DNA” while at the same time focusing entirely on their key product or service.
The President of the Banka Koper Management Board, Giancarlo Miranda, strongly emphasised the importance of obtaining sensitive information that can be essential for the operation of export companies and to finding business partners. That is where Slovenian export companies can take advantage of the extensive business network of the Intesa Sanpaolo Group, which is present with its subsidiary banks in 11 countries of Central and Eastern Europe, including the important markets of the former Yugoslavia.
Banka Koper, member of the Intesa Sanpaolo Group, is therefore the first bank in Slovenia to provide the Tradeway service to all interested Slovenian companies that are already present on foreign markets or are only beginning to take part in the internationalisation process. Banka Koper thus makes efficient use of synergistic effects arising from membership in one of the biggest and most successful banking groups in Europe and frequently introduces new products and services into the Slovenian business environment.