Baroness Fairhead, Minister for Export Promotion at the Department for International Trade (DIT), recently visited Becton Dickinson (BD) (www.bd.com), which is an international life sciences company based in Plymouth.

Renowned for its high-quality medical technology, the company has operations in the USA, Japan and the Middle East, and it employs 65,000 people around the world.

It has eight sites in the UK and Ireland, which employ 2,800 people in a variety of research, manufacturing and retail roles.

The Plymouth operation makes 2.6 billion items every year, specialising in blood collection tubes that are distributed to hospitals and other medical facilities world-wide.

Baroness Fairhead said: “BD is a great example of a global business whose export and manufacturing operation is helping to drive growth in its local community, through initiatives such as its apprenticeship scheme.

“The DIT stands ready to support any business in South West England — and around the country — that has the ambition to export.

“This includes our network of trade advisors, who are on-hand to offer guidance, our export credit agency — UK Export Finance — and a variety of export opportunities through GREAT.gov.uk.”