They are about to embark on a Trade Mission to China, where they have appointments with key figures in the industry arranged via the British Embassy, and have also benefited from market introductions and targeted advice on opportunities in Germany and the Czech Republic.
The company specialise in Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) systems, which are the computer data formats used by the vast majority of companies around the world for E-commerce transactions.
Atlas Products already have a wide range of mainly UK-based clients - from small family firms to large multinationals including Intel, Benetton, Penguin books, Sony and Samsung, and have a technical team with many years' experience in secure electronic communications. They have also recently won a huge order in Ireland, and are looking to open a separate manned office there.
However, they recently decided to expand their horizons further, and turned to UKTI North West's International Trade Adviser Neil McCluskey for help.
Neil specialises in the IT and Digital sector and was happy to advise the company on the best potential markets. He also suggested they join the Passport to Export programme, UKTI's flagship scheme for new and inexperienced exporters, which Operations Manager Margaret Gray describes as invaluable.
"The Passport course really helped us focus on what we wanted to achieve, how to make our systems successful overseas, and which markets would be best for Atlas Products," she says.
"We also received some excellent advice on how to update our website and make sure that we came up on search engines, and it was really useful in a general sense, meeting the other people on the course and being able to discuss our businesses."
The government funding that came with the Passport to Export programme also helped Atlas to meet the costs of their forthcoming China market visit, and UKTI's network of contacts in the Embassy have helped them to pre-arrange meetings with potential trading partners there.
Atlas have also benefited from the Overseas Market Introduction Service (OMIS) - which can put companies on the fast track to overseas success, providing research, introductions and practical help from the people who really understand the market.
They commissioned reports on both Germany and the Czech Republic after researching which countries offered the best opportunities, have recently employed a salesperson who speaks German and are hoping to increase their overseas business from 25% to 50% in the future.
