SME Safari to Warrenpoint, Northern Ireland

This week saw the first SME Safari of 2026. As a reminder, these are full day events where government policy makers and product owners meet founders in their real-life settings to gain a deeper understanding of what’s happening on the ground and in business.

Sincere thanks to Dan Wilson for playing host of this Safari to Warrenpoint, a town with a population of 10,000, and trading home to amazing businesses we met including Elk Books and MOURNE TEXTILES LIMITED, plus a session with WBR Credit Union and their customers.

These are my take-aways from a day spent in an enterprising place on the shores of Northern Ireland:

• The value of trade associations and networks: Helene from Elk Books spoke about how her trade group, The Booksellers Association, helped her start in business and continues to provide value via access to a mentor and market updates. Colleen Dowdall Tinnelly, President of WBR Chamber, spoke passionately about how she is making the case for Warrenpoint to be considered when business support and regeneration funding decisions are being made in Belfast.
• Location, location, location: Northern Ireland is in a unique trading position, with small businesses having the ability to sell online to mainland Great Britain being part of the UK, and to the Republic of Ireland which is south of the border. Admittedly, the Windsor Agreement has added friction to the shipping process but not so much that it is dissuading businesses from export, with Mourne Textiles as an example, shipping their beautiful hand made products to customers across the globe. A new bridge being built is creating excitement in the town in view of the extra footfall it will deliver, and there is work to identify more buildings that can be turned into co-working or light industrial space. Suzanne Murdock runs such a successful space in nearby Newry and is hoping to replicate this.
• Access to finance on the High Street: what a wonderful welcome from WBR Credit Union who gathered for us a number of their customers for a wide ranging discussion. WBR Credit Union is located on the High Street and rooted in the town, meaning they can serve it well with loans and growth capital. On the opposite side of the High Street was a Banking Hub in the Post Office to deliver on daily banking needs. The businesses we met had a clear appreciation for where and how they could source a loan and I do think this comes from seeing the presence of funding on the High Street and in the community.
• Getting the message out: I am well aware of how busy small business owners are – managing multiple jobs at any one time – which is why it’s a tough challenge to get news out of programmes and support that can help. The Fair Payment Code that my own Office runs has only three businesses from Northern Ireland on it (something we are looking to change with this visit) and awareness of initiatives such as Help to Grow Management, Export Academy and The King’s Awards for Enterprise were low. This always fires up my desire to see a ‘single source’ serve support to small firms based on how they are performing ie if you are exporting, you are served with related government and private sector support so don’t need to go looking – or rely on a group of 7 civil servants turning up to share the news! There was praise given from businesses who had engaged with Go Succeed delivered by local councils across Northern Ireland.

Thank you to all the business owners who openly shared with us current challenges but also their desire for growth with plans to raise funding, hire people, ship to new countries. I left feeling inspired by these resilient people. Go, Warrenpoint!