Brand Scotland backing for female entrepreneurs
Source: gov.uk (2025-05-06)

Minister Kirsty McNeill champions all-women exporting power with female-led business roundtable hosted at Scotland Office Edinburgh HQ

Scottish female entrepreneurs are getting direct access to the UK Government’s global trade expertise as Scotland Office Minister Kirsty McNeill urged women business leaders to join her on the first all-female Brand Scotland trade mission.

The Scotland Office hosted a gathering of female business leaders from across Scotland on Thursday 1 May to identify and tackle any export challenges they face. Minister McNeill wanted to bring together business professionals to boost the success of women-led firms in the worldwide market.

It’s part of the department’s Brand Scotland mission, to sell Scotland’s unique strengths around the world - promoting our goods and services to new markets, helping Scottish businesses export, and supporting trade missions to key global markets to unlock jobs and investment for the future.

At the roundtable discussion event in Edinburgh Minister McNeill asked for the views of company leaders across the technology, sustainability, clean energy and beauty sectors, as well as from representatives of the Scottish Chambers of Commerce, the Confederation of British Industry and Women’s Enterprise Scotland.

Minister McNeill said:

From science and sustainability to culture and financial services, we’re amongst the best in the world - and by selling Scotland globally, we can unlock jobs and investment, an essential part of our Plan for Change.

It’s crucial that I hear from Scottish businesswomen about the barriers they face, find out what we can do to help, and demonstrate how Scottish companies can really benefit from having direct informal access like this to the UK’s vast global network of trade expertise. By harnessing the combined resources of the Scotland Office, the Foreign Office and Department for Business and Trade, we can create significant opportunities for women entrepreneurs.

We’re already seeing positive results from championing Brand Scotland internationally and I’m committed to unlocking more global opportunities for Scottish women in business.

The roundtable discussion addressed three key challenges – how businesses can access finance and investment, overcoming export barriers, and tackling market access issues that disproportionately affect women-led businesses.

Ideas and suggestions from the meeting will directly shape the Scotland Office’s all-women trade mission to Madrid in June where Minister McNeill will use diplomatic networks to expand markets for British exporters and meet with the Spanish business community to strengthen trade links. Representatives of Scottish female-led companies are being invited to join.

Background

Brand Scotland is about selling Scotland’s unique strengths around the world - promoting our goods and services to new markets, helping Scottish businesses export, and funding and supporting trade missions to key global markets to unlock jobs and investment for the future.

As part of this, the Scotland Office will lead trade missions to sell Scotland and its products to the world, encourage inward investment in Scotland and encourage Scottish firms to export to overseas markets - often for the first time. All this will drive growth and jobs here in Scotland.
- The Budget allocated an additional £750k for the Scottish Secretary and the Scotland Office to develop the Brand Scotland programme.
- The Scottish Secretary has already made trade trips to Norway, South East Asia and the US. Minister McNeill’s first trade trip will be to Madrid in June.