A FAMILY-run business from Corwen is on track to reach record sales of more than £4million thanks to export success across North America and Europe, supported by Welsh Government.

Ruth Lee is a world-leading supplier of manikins and training aids utilised by rescue training experts across the world.

Designed and manufactured in Corwen, the manikins are primarily used by the military, fire and rescue services, healthcare sector and those operating in water rescue services, from swimming pools to flood zones.

Exports account for about 70 per cent of the company’s turnover.

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Ruth Lee has identified significant potential in the US for its patient handling and bariatric plus size manikins, which were originally redesigned and refined during the pandemic for medical professionals who could no longer train on real people anymore, but who still needed to complete their ongoing professional qualifications.

While these products were initially designed for the NHS, they are now seeing significant success in the US, largely due to the litigious nature of its healthcare sector, where patient handling is a legally fraught area and intensive training in this skillset is becoming more of a focus.

“Events have become a huge part of our export strategy”, said Paul McDonnell, managing director at Ruth Lee.

“We’re attending more than ever before all around the world and really looking to grow our brand awareness in global markets.

“As well as doing a lot of work in the US, we’ve also been extremely proactive in the Middle East and Asia and have recently appointed new distributors in Dubai and another in Malaysia, who will look after the whole of South East Asia for us.

“India is another huge target market that we are actively exploring.

“I’ve recently returned from a market visit to Mumbai and Bangalore hosted by the Welsh Government, where some excellent in-roads were made to establish new market partners and we’re looking forward to announcing some new deals in the Indian market very soon.”