A Staffordshire company is selling its software games to multinational giants – with help from UK Trade & Investment.

Astraware, of Keele Science and Business Park, Newcastle-under-Lyme, develops, publishes and distributes games for PDAs and Smartphones powered by Palm OSR™ and Windows MobileR™.

Astraware’s games range from action adventure titles to word and puzzle games, with top sellers including Astraware Sudoku, Bejeweled 2 and Broken Sword: Shadow of the Templars.

In April 2005, Astraware joined UK Trade & Investment’s Passport initiative - a flagship scheme that gives new exporters the training, planning and ongoing support they need to succeed overseas.

Through Passport, the company has benefited from a package of support, including a free export health check; attending an export workshop; assistance in formulating an international trade strategy and matched funding to help implement this strategy; quality training and mentoring advice; access to the full range of UK Trade & Investment services and membership of the Midlands World Trade Forum, the regional export club.

Astraware’s Vice-President of Business Development, John Phillips, said: “We have been working with UK Trade & Investment for about two years, and started by going on market visits, primarily to the USA, which opened doorways that would not have been accessible to us otherwise.

“We reached agreements with Palm in the US, Australia and France and Microsoft in the US, for them to place our games on their devices – all with help from UK Trade & Investment.

“Thanks to the Passport scheme, we have also formed excellent relationships with manylike-minded developers of games in Australia. We hope this will lead to several joint ventures, with new partners selling our products into the Asian Pacific markets.

“Since joining Passport, we have doubled our turnover, with exports now making up 70 per cent of sales, and taken on seven new staff, increasing our workforce by nearly 50 per cent to 22. We are planning to move to larger, purpose-built premises within the next year to cope with the demand from overseas.

“Our international trade adviser, Louise Barth, has been fantastic. She is extremely astute and attentive, and immediately understood what we were seeking to do, helping us to achieve our goals within 12 months.”

Astraware began in the early 1990s as a gathering of like-minded friends from the UK who saw an opportunity to enter the then embryonic mobile games market. Their hobby became a full time business when it was incorporated in 2000.

International trade adviser Louise Barth, based at Staffordshire Chambers of Commerce, said: “The team at Astraware have worked with exceptional enthusiasm and commitment to make the very best of Passport, and this has paid dividends for them. It has been a pleasure to watch them grow and learn and to see their success.

“I know that Astraware will grow to be one of the leading companies in its field, and look forward to continuing to provide advice and support.”

For more information about how UK Trade & Investment can help your business expand into new markets abroad, contact the international trade team at Staffordshire Chambers of Commerce on Tel: 01782 202222.

Picture caption: International trade adviser Louise Barth is pictured with (left)Astraware’sVice-President of Business Development, John Phillips, and (right) company CEO Howard Tomlinson.