Department for International Trade (DIT) mission departs LBA for San Francisco

Among businesses on the mission to attend the Winter Fancy Food Show in San Francisco was new exporter Shepherd’s Purse, the award-winning, independent, family-owned artisan cheese maker with about 30 staff based in Thirsk, North Yorkshire.

Caroline Bell, co-managing director of Shepherd’s Purse and sales account manager Amy O’Brien, joined other mission delegates to depart from Leeds Bradford Airport (Thurs, 19th Jan) with British Airways via Heathrow T5 to access the West Coast of the US conveniently.

Caroline said: “The connectivity between Leeds Bradford and London Heathrow as a gateway to the world and LBA’s offering of direct access to many UK and European destinations enables Yorkshire and the Humber businesses such as Shepherd’s Purse to access markets and gives buyers access to us.”

Stephen Noblett, international trade advisor and food and drink sector specialist at the Department for International Trade Yorkshire and the Humber, organised the delegation from the region and said: “We want to encourage Yorkshire and the Humber businesses to depart from their local airport and use its convenient links to hub airports for connecting flights when on trade missions to mainland Europe and as in this case, further afield around the world.”

Tony Hallwood, Aviation Development Director at LBA, said: “We were pleased to host these important delegates, enabling them to access the US market easily from the closest airport to their businesses. It’s fantastic to see that the DIT is supporting the Yorkshire export market in this way and we hope the trade mission is extremely beneficial to all delegates travelling out from the region. 

“We pride ourselves on offering a great Yorkshire welcome to all outbound and inbound passengers, providing worldwide connections through the prestigious hub airport at Heathrow T5.”