ONE of the Peterborough’s leading marketing and public relations consultancies has opened an office in the Netherlands to assist clients on both sides of the North Sea with their export marketing.

Smye Holland Associates will service clients in The Netherlands and northern Europe from a new office in Castricum, near Amsterdam, headed by Dutch general manager Michael Ruiter.

Mike Holland, managing director of Smye Holland Associates (www.smye-holland.com), said: “The fall in the value of sterling against the euro last year opened up new export opportunities for British companies in continental Europe. However, we have already seen sterling recover much of the value which it lost, demonstrating that an export drive based just on price advantage is not sustainable over the long term. Companies need to have a much more effective marketing strategy than simply under-cutting the competition.

“At the same time, the current exchange rate means that continental European companies are having to be much smarter with their marketing if they want to sell in the UK than perhaps they have needed to be in the past.

“We therefore see two-way trade benefiting from the experience and expertise which we can provide.”

Smye Holland Associates provides market research, marketing planning, marketing communications and PR services. It specialises in business-to-business (b2b) marketing with particular expertise in the construction/building/housing, technology and engineering, and environment and waste management sectors.

Michael Ruiter said: “We can create effective campaigns that combine a range of marketing, public relations and advertising techniques to help Dutch companies export to the UK and vice-versa.

“Working across both The Netherlands and the UK we can blend strategic planning with market insights and creative marketing to deliver effective results.”

Smye Holland Associates has established a new bilingual website www.smye-holland.nl to support its new venture in The Netherlands.