No Headline Present

in Scotland usually regard such takeovers. We only had 77 quoted

companies out of the UK total of 2500. Now we have lost one of those,

and to boot it was one of our more successful raiders south into the

English market.

Naturally it's not that simple and there is currently little

indication that another aggressive takeovers wave is about to hit

Scottish-headquartered companies. There are several of our more

important quoted businesses that the stock market preceives as being

vulnerable to acquisition because they have lost their way or hit big

setbacks, such as Dawson international and its recent withdrawal from

the US market with big write-offs.

But that is not the same as a wholescale threat hanging over chunks of

our large corporate sector as it did in the eighties. Remember the

Standard Chartered and Hong Kong and Shanghai bank bids for the Royal

Bank, or Elders IXL and Scottish & Newcastle or the Distillers Company

and Guinness?

Yet the Wm Low experience is worth examining from another viewpoint

altogether: the success or otherwise of Scottish based companies in

penetrating the national UK market, or to be more precise England.

In the immediate aftermath of the battle, Low's doughty chairman,

James Millar, reflected painfully that it may now be impossible to build

a national retail chain from a Scottish base thanks to the continuing

consolidation of markets into the hands of a few major players.

''I believe that Scottish companies can only grow large where you do

not have that national market with players south of the border who are

bigger and stronger than you,'' he was reported as saying.

Is that really true? Are there therefore sizeable slices of the

lucrative UK market that are now effectively closed to Scottish

companies because they cannot match the big boys?

At first sight the evidence does not support that assertion. A stream

of Scottish-based businesses have done very well thank you in England

these past few years. They include Kwik-Fit, Hewden-Stuart, Macfarlane

Group, Stagecoach, Scottish & Newcastle, British Polythene Industries

and What Everyone Wants. Indeed several of these have expanded to the

point where they are now the big boy whom the English competition seek

to target.

Some have effectively created their own market by launching new

concepts across the border. But others have done it the hard way through

acquisition and patient stalking of prime targets like BPI, Stagecoach

and Macfarlane.

So across the spectrum it is clearly possible for a well managed

Scottish company with a strong product, service or brand to successfully

attack the national market. But, to return to Millar's point, that

mostly happens where there is no dominating player south of the border

and, preferably, the Scottish company has a new concept or technology,

or indeed is targeting a niche market in which its lazier English

competitors have no immediate response.

Doing business in England is different to Scotland. It is to all

intents and purposes an export market even though you don't have to

drive through a tunnel or catch a ferry enroute. The language may be

(mostly) the same, but business practices and culture often differ

significantly around the regions.

Many of the rules that apply to successful exporting also apply to

invading England, including the one that it is usually best to hire

local people steeped in the business lore of the area rather than try to

import strangers from the frozen north.

I have always been intrigued by the relative lack of importance

afforded here to doing business in England. Most internationally

successful Scottish companies first conquered the southern market. It

provides a doorstep opportunity to grow a business far beyond what is

possible in its home market alone. One English region, the north-west,

has an economy 40% greater than that of Scotland.

Yet we are constantly encouraged to pursue ''real'' exports. If

Uzdeckistan is not to your taste then Guandong and Vietnam are flush

with opportunity.

Not having been to these places I cannot vouch for their commercial

attraction. But I have spent much time in Manchester and Liverpool these

past few years and there's lots of opportunity there for any business

that has succeeded in the rather small, fairly competitive Scottish

market.

Unless, I guess, you run a supermarkets group.

Alastair Balfour is managing director of Insider Publications Ltd.