Chamber business support team help training consultancy expand international offering

The business support team of Greater Birmingham Chambers of Commerce has helped workplace mental health and wellbeing training consultancy Altruist expand their international reach through targeted connections and export support.

The firm, who has supported more than 500 organisations over the past 13 years, recently launched a Global Mental Health Support resource covering support services across different countries.

The launch comes ahead of World Mental Health Day, marked annually on 10 October.

Altruise secured funding through the Get Ready 2 Supply programme with Chamber support and was able to develop a new website designed to attract and win larger B2B contracts, with improvements to SEO, user experience and automation.

The website has continued to develop and has helped increase website traffic and enquiries.

Altruist later joined the Greater Birmingham Chambers of Commerce after founder and director Katie Buckingham (pictured) attended an event focused on exporting services.

Through the Chamber Export Programme, Altruist was introduced to Madrid Chamber of Commerce and Basque Trade & Investment, gaining valuable insight into the Spanish market.

Basque Trade & Investment subsequently connected Altruist with a complementary business in Bilbao, which has provided translation support and will soon support the co-facilitation of training.

The export support programme, launched by the West Midlands Combined Authority, is aimed at supporting high-growth businesses in the West Midlands to manage their exporting activity more sustainably.

The programme is led by Greater Birmingham Chambers of Commerce, together with Warwickshire Chamber of Commerce and Black Country Chamber of Commerce.

Katie said: “International work has accelerated for us over the last few years.

“We’ve worked with UK offices before expanding our support to their global teams, as well as working directly with offices based overseas.

“Delivering internationally has reinforced that mental health can’t be approached in exactly the same way in every country.

“Language, cultural context, statistics and the support available locally can all differ, so simply delivering a UK programme to an international audience isn’t enough.”

“I’d been looking for international support but hadn’t really found what we needed. I hadn’t realised how much export support was available to service-based businesses.

Altruist is also delivering its services to employees and managers across EMEA, North America and APAC.

Its international clients include HBX, headquartered in Spain, while its work with global manufacturer Adient demonstrates how relationships with UK teams can develop into wider international delivery.

Altruist delivers its international training online, including Mental Health Training for Managers, Mental Health First Aid and Lunch & Learn webinars across 15 workplace wellbeing topics.

Katie continued: “One of our strengths is that we’re specialists. Workplace mental health and wellbeing has been our sole focus for the past 13 years, and we’ve worked with more than 500 organisations.

“For global businesses, that means they can have one specialist provider delivering consistent wellbeing training across their international workforce, while adapting it appropriately for different countries. We combine our experience with a highly qualified team and a flexible approach, adapting our training to the organisation, its people and the countries they operate in.

“Our next focus is working with more global businesses that have a presence in the UK, while continuing to develop opportunities in the Spanish market. The Chamber has helped us make valuable connections that can support the next stage of our international growth.”

Business looking for exporting assistance can reach out to the Greater Birmingham Global Chamber of Commerce for specialist help.