"Jessica is doing an excellent job of researching the market"

Reactec

What is your company background?

Reactec is a spin out of Edinburgh University and has been funded by a business angel company called Archangles with support also from Braveheart Investments and the Scottish Co-Investment Fund (Scottish Enterprise). We have invented, designed, manufactured and sell the "Havmeter" which monitors vibration levels where people are potentially exposed to high levels of vibration eg Jack Hammer operatives, drilling, chain sawing etc. This is to prevent the operatives getting "white finger syndrome". We have been successfully making and selling these devices in the UK for about three years and are now looking to go into Europe.

Why did you choose to take on a graduate placement?

We decided we should conduct a three month feasibility study with a fluent German speaker who could market research the German market for us, before we decide whether it is a good market for us to enter. It seemed that a Graduate Placement for a Marketing graduate with German language skills would be ideal to conduct this study.

How is the graduate placement programme benefiting your organisation?

And so Jessica was selected via the TalentScotland Graduate Placement Programme and she is doing an excellent job of researching the market.

This exercise should allow us to make a much more enlightened decision into whether our product is appropriate for this new market while advising on the best route to market if we choose to do so. It will also allow us to develop a detailed plan for entering this market, or indeed not, if that is the case. This approach should avoid unnecessary spend and cost while focusing on how best to approach the German market.