West Midlands Businesses Take Centre Stage at Roundtable with Minister Chris Bryant

On Wednesday, business leaders from across the West Midlands gathered in Westminster for a lively and constructive roundtable with Business Minister Chris Bryant MP, focused on shaping the future of UK export support and what the government can do to help make the West Midlands a regional powerbase for the UK economy.

Bringing together members of the West Midlands All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG), including the chair and officers as well as MPs, the Department for Business and Trade (DBT) and exporters from across the region, the session created space for open, practical conversations about what is currently working and what the minister and his team of advisors and civil servants could do.

As the Minister continues a series of regional roundtables across the UK, the West Midlands session stood out as the best attended and most engaged — a clear signal of both the strength of the region’s business community and its determination to help shape export policy that works in practice. The APPG secretariat supported the event and we will be seeking to hold future such events as the year progresses.

Businesses represented on the day included:

• Addfield Environmental Systems Limited

• Prometheus Medical International

• TruFlo

• Independent Freight Logistics

• APK ID

• JUST OIL LIMITED

• Sandvik

• Strip Tinning Automotive

• Mail Solutions Group | UK Envelope & Print Manufacturer

• TMT First Limited

Thanks go to the Department for Business and Trade for convening the session, and to the businesses who travelled to London to share honest insights from their day-to-day exporting experience.

Looking ahead, there is strong momentum to build on this engagement — strengthening relationships with the Minister and DBT, and creating further roundtable opportunities later this year with other government departments.

These conversations are exactly what’s needed to ensure export services continue to evolve in ways that genuinely support growth across the West Midlands — turning business insight into meaningful action.