Europe's Small Businesses Seek Exports—Fast
Europe’s small businesses struggle with high costs and little demand
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The small-to-midsize enterprises of Europe’s periphery—Ireland, Spain, Greece, Portugal, and Italy—have their backs to the wall. Their domestic markets are tanking. So they have little choice but to try to export.
That’s a difficult task. Germany’s midsize companies have spent decades turning themselves into world-class contenders. In contrast, the 8 million so-called peripheral SMEs, which employ 27 million people, have long struggled to overcome the high costs of labor, transport, and real estate in their domestic markets. These costs leave their largely low-tech products—including furniture, bricks, piping, and other construction equipment—ill-prepared for global competition.