JOANNA OLIVER'S MISSION TO TAKE UK CONSTRUCTION GLOBAL

Joanna Oliver tells Neil Gerrard about her 30-year career representing UK manufacturers and what comes next

Joanna Oliver has worked within the construction industry for more than 30 years

Joanna Oliver has come as close as anyone would want to dodging bullets in her 30 years promoting UK construction equipment manufacturers abroad.

In Algeria, she watched shell casings rain down onto her balcony as soccer fans fired guns in celebration of a World Cup qualifier win over Egypt.

In Mongolia, a case of meningitis saw her airlifted out on a private jet with no toilet. And in Turkmenistan, officials combed through her hotel room, seemingly convinced she was a spy. Those are just a few of the choicest anecdotes she has, having visited 90 countries across six continents.

But beyond the occasional drama, her work with the Construction Equipment Association (CEA) helped UK manufacturers crack international markets. Now, she is preparing to move on from the CEA and onto new projects after April’s Bauma show in Germany, following a change in the organisation’s focus.

From politics to plant

Oliver originally started out as a political agent for the Conservative Party but soon discovered her enthusiasm for working to further the interests of construction equipment firms. Having started working for the CEA in 1995 for free alongside her husband and former CEA chief executive Rob, she carved out a niche promoting CEA members at big shows like Bauma and Conexpo, alongside amplifying the sector’s voice on government committees. She credits a difficult time at school in the 1960s and ‘70s with “toughening her up” and preparing her for success in the maledominated construction equipment world. “I was undiagnosed dyslexic and got expelled from a boarding school for being ‘disruptive, lazy, and stupid’,” she explains. “But it has made me into the person I am today and I have been able to encourage fellow dyslexics I meet who, even now, are frightened to tell people about their dyslexia in case it affects their employment or social opportunities.”

At the start of her career in construction, the UK government offered sizeable grants to companies planning to exhibit at construction shows in support of exports.

“So I started making a bit of a nuisance of myself with government committees and then getting into other government relations areas,” she explains. “That led to some funding so we could do more exhibitions.”

By the early 2000s, the organisation was receiving money to go to China. She attended the first edition of Bauma China in 2002, which led to attending the BICES construction equipment exhibition in Beijing and bringing a UK trade mission out to the country.

In the early days, Chinese companies were “desperate” for high-quality components from abroad, she explains. Chinese manufacturers have evolved rapidly since then, to the point where they became “fairly self-sufficient”.

Seeking out developing markets

That led Oliver to seek out other locations in the name of enhancing UK OEMs’ overseas business. She took groups out to Bauma Conexpo India, Conexpo in the US, Bauma Conexpo Africa, Bauma Conexpo Asia in Singapore, M&T Expo in Brazil, and more. But she was keen to push the boundaries even further and began scoping visits to destinations like Mongolia, Algeria and Turkmenistan, each of which threw up their own challenges and opportunities. A single trade mission of UKbased OEMs to Mongolia yielded £10 million (US$12.9 million) worth of orders, she recalls. Oliver is modest about how much her work has contributed to the sales of construction equipment manufacturers but estimates the total value of deals that her work at the CEA has resulted in to be at least £200 million (US$260 million) – and probably a lot more. Meanwhile, at least 400 companies have either participated in trade missions or UK pavilions at exhibitions she has helped to organise.

And if she plays down her achievements, then clearly the UK government views things differently. She was awarded an MBE in 2011 by the late Queen Elizabeth II for services to the construction equipment industry and international trade. Her husband Rob received his own MBE in the 2023 New Year’s Honours List, creating what Joanna describes as a “twogong household”.

Oliver's work has taken her around the world. The picture shows her in Mongolia, where she visited a coal mine

That’s not to say that her efforts in the sector have concluded. She is still working with UK Export Finance and the British embassy in Ulaanbaatar to get a Mongolian group of buyers to the UK’s PlantWorx show this year. However, she feels the environment for UK manufacturers to reach and do business with new overseas buyers is tougher than it was in the past.

“In developing markets, you are up against countries that have big EXIM [ExportImport] banks who are happy to give loans and structured support to companies in return for them building a project. We’ve got to get the

UK government to work on the same sort of structure as, say, the Japanese and the South Koreans are.

“You have to try and look at the big picture and get involved with the funders, governments, consultants and contractors in the big construction projects,” she says.

What’s next?

As for what’s next, Oliver’s contract with the CEA continues until 7 May and she will be in charge of the UK pavilion at Bauma Munich in Germany.

After Bauma, the work continues – she is still involved in several government consultations, continues to work with a trade association called AMPS, which represents manufacturers and suppliers of power generating systems, and is involved with the UK’s PlantWorx show. Beyond that, she is looking to channel 30 years’ worth of experience into consultancy work.

“I’d be really interested in doing something, particularly with SMEs, to share the knowledge I have picked up over the years and help them to understand how to tap into a new market. “People in these new markets are nearly always lovely. There are definitely opportunities, but effort is required,” she concludes.