BUSINESS leaders from Tennessee were in Dorset to offer local firms a vital springboard into the vast US markets.

Tennessee's position as the distribution hub of America offers major opportunities for both experienced local exporters and firms yet to expand into overseas trade.

Dorset Chamber of Commerce & Industry is leading the initiative to trade with Tennessee through its partnerships with the Blount County (near Knoxville) and Nashville chambers.

Blount Partnership president and CEO Fred Forster said: "We are interested in diversifying our economy. We're a prime market for distribution."

Around 47.9 per cent of the US population lives within a 12 hour/600-mile driving radius of the state capital Nashville. Six main interstate highways meet in Tennessee.

State of Tennessee European representative David Gibbons said: "I don't think British firms realise the resources that are there.

"There are very few places better for distribution than Tennessee."

FedEx - the world's biggest distributor - delivers 2.5 million packages per day: "It's no accident that they are based in Memphis, Tennessee," he added.

Tennessee has a strong automotive industry and the state's nine lakes and high degree of boat ownership offer opportunities to the South's marine firms.

Tennessee's Oak Ridge National Laboratory - the site which developed the Manhattan Project atomic bomb - is now providing solutions for manufacturers.

The lab is one of only two places in the world producing the isotope Californium which is used in the neutron-scanning of materials to discover sub-surface flaws.

Dorset businesses keen to trade with Tennessee and the rest of the US are being offered places on a DCCI trade mission to the state on June 8. Details, Elaine Walker, DCCI, 01202 448806 or e-mail elaine.walker@dcci.co.uk

l Nashville's leading industry is not - contrary to popular belief - country music, it is printing and publishing with more than 1,200 businesses operating in the sector.

DCCI patron the Daily Echo is owned by US publishing group Gannett and is proud to support the Dorset-Tennessee trade link by forwarding this article to our sister papers The Tennessean, Nashville; The Jackson Sun, Jackson and The Leaf Chronicle, Clarksville.