Thorn go-it-alone mission pays off

THORN Lighting expects to win its first order in post-war Iraq within weeks, after deciding against using Government-backed channels and making its own way out to the oil-rich country in a bid for business.

The Essex-based lighting group, now part of Austrian giant Zumtobel, has linked up with the al-Hafidh trading family, which is pitching for contracts on its behalf.

UK export manager Ian Killick said there has been a step change in activity in recent weeks as the reconstruction effort finally begins to gather pace.

'We are starting to see things move ahead and getting specific enquiries for our products from all and sundry,' he said. 'Iraq was our biggest Middle Eastern market before 1989.'

Killick went to Baghdad in June with security firm Risk Advisory Group. Such firms offering to take executives there and arrange meetings are winning more work as Government-sponsored Trade Partners, set up to promote British firms overseas, delays plans for a trade mission to Iraq.