UKTI initially began its intermediary strategy in 2011, as it became increasingly clear
that foreign investors were coming into the UK via channels other than with UKTI’s
direct support. UKTI then fully launched the initiative and established a dedicated
Investment Services intermediary division – named “Commercial Partnerships” at the
UKTI found that many intermediaries were often burdened with questions and tasks
from their corporate FDI clients that they couldn’t necessarily help with. This provid-
ed further opportunity for UKTI to step in to support investors directly with issues
such as market intelligence, introduction to other government departments as well as
signposting investors to other intermediaries for direct support in areas such as recruit-
The key objective of UKTI’s Investment Services team’s intermediary program was and
remains to provide a new channel of FDI leads to bolster the existing inward invest-
ment pipeline, to realize new investment successes from new and existing UK foreign
investors, alongside creating and retaining jobs for the UK economy. This program also
provides a way to access existing inward investors in the UK, which currently have no
A further objective is being able to match FDI clients with key advisors to support
them on their entry to the UK or their growth within. The Intermediary team receives
approximately 3 to 4 emails per day from the international post (embassy) network
Building an intermediary network also enables UKTI to support mergers and acqui-
sitions (M&A). Whilst UKTI cannot directly support acquisitions of UK-domestic
firms, it can pass investors through to an advisor to help source potential targets. By
maintaining the relationship with the investor via the advisor, UKTI can subsequent-
eign-owned and is therefore eligible to the full range of support to all FDI clients and
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would then be placed on a UKTI account management (“aftercare”) list to ensure the
new owners retain and hopefully grow their new investment in the UK.
The intermediary team began with a team of three people growing to 10 people as of
2016, operating on a UK regional basis. In the beginning the team was solely focused
on working with intermediaries to uncover new FDI leads. This has now evolved as
the team is also tasked with attending key industry events to outreach to existing and
potential new foreign investors in the UK which previously had no relationship with
UKTI. These companies are often sourced via intermediary channels as multipliers will
often share lists of their existing clients operating in the UK.
Since 2012, over 1,200 new FDI project leads from both entirely new and existing UK
investors have been uncovered. This has resulted in around 300 realised investment
successes for the UK. An example is a well-known, US-based women’s retailer which
had been introduced to UKTI via one of the UK’s largest banks. They wished to open
3 stores in London, including a European flagship. UKTI helped provide links to com-
mercial real estate advisors to source prime real estate in central London. This retailer
has since expanded to operate 8 stores across the UK.
For UKTI, all types of intermediaries within the FDI supply chain are targeted, both
UK and foreign-owned. This includes: banks, accountants, lawyers, business set-up
consultants, recruitment agencies, real estate agents, HR advisors, IT consultants, busi-
ness & trade associations, local and foreign chambers of commerce and business net-
works (FETPO), foreign IPAs. UKTI Investment Services Team has live and nurtured
relationships with around 200 intermediaries. In total, over 500 individual intermedi-
ary contacts have been connected with since the programme started in 2012.
The best yielding intermediaries for FDI leads tend to be the foreign chambers of com-
merce, other foreign investment promotion agencies and the top-level site selectors
and big consultancy firms. Where UKTI can add the most value to leads is also via
these channels as generally the UK will still only be on a long or short list for the in-
vestment and there is a lot of “selling” and proposition development that UKTI can
offer at this stage. Banks, legal and accountancy also provide good sources of FDI leads
although these tend to be projects or investments that are coming to the UK anyway, so
it is more a case of investor handholding rather than supporting or selling the benefits
of the UK. There is however, a sales pitch for UK cities and regions. The latter aims to
help a client with their to-do list, giving them a soft landing in the UK.
When the team started in 2012 there was some cold-calling to introduce UKTI and its
services; however, the most widely used and best form of outreach to intermediaries
was made via networking and events. These included events such as the British Amer-
ican Business, other foreign association events and key industry conferences. Word-
of-mouth was also widely used - for example many advisory firms would tend to have
partnership relationships with other complimentary services providers, such as legal
and accountancy. Relationships with intermediaries are maintained via meetings on a
regular basis - monthly or quarterly meetings, joint seminars, round tables, the sharing
of market and economic intelligence from UKTI and the sharing of business opportu-
nities for the intermediaries from UKTI’s FDI clients.
Establishing a partnership between UKTI and private sector intermediaries has helped
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demystify working with government with a view to demonstrating how government
can support instead of hindering business in the UK. This has been particularly useful
considering recent events where intermediaries and their investor clients have been
able to have a direct link with the government to discuss issues or opportunities asso-
ciated with Brexit.
There is a small suite of promotional materials aimed at intermediaries to support both
entirely new investors to the UK and existing investors promoting how government
support can benefit the investor directly as well as keeping an intermediary’s client hap-
py and generating more business all round. The main, direct marketing technique used
is UKTI-hosted intermediary events and roundtables. These events can be both dedi-
cated advisor events, i.e. UKTI will host at the intermediary’s office internal personnel
only - this is often for big banks and law firms - or by holding external events hosted
at UKTI offices for a range of service providers. There tends to be at least one external
roundtable held per quarter with around 20 advisors attending each.
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