A Dutchman who bought a West Sussex vineyard from the husband-and-wife team behind the 1980s pop group Bucks Fizz is spearheading a renaissance in Britain’s luxury goods industry.

Eric Heerema is the head of Nyetimber, a “boutique” English sparkling wine that has beaten some of the best French champagnes in blind tastings in recent years. After securing a place on the shelves of Waitrose, the supermarket chain, and supplying Buckingham Palace, Mr Heerema is eyeing export markets, with plans to take production from 30,000 bottles a year to 750,000. “This is only the beginning for us,” he said.

Nyetimber is one of a dozen fledgeling British luxury companies taking advantage of the resilience of the sector to the credit crunch to test international markets. While the high street is enduring a tough year, Burberry is selling alligator-skin Warrior handbags costing £13,000. Smallwood, a luxury kitchen supplier, said on Friday that its brand was going from “strength to strength” in the United States after winning a new supply contract. Boodles, a Bond Street jeweller, said this month that rather than noticing customers cutting back on spending, they were asking for more exclusive and expensive pieces.

The growth of the luxury market in recent years has attracted venture capital firms, which traditionally have ignored luxury companies. Permira bought a majority stake in Valentino, the Italian fashion house, last summer.

Industry executives say that there is still a fear that a slowdown in America spread to Britain. However, they add that British brands are firmly back after the resurgence of Burberry and Dunhill and the success overseas of companies such as Jo Malone and Links of London. Robert Ettinger, chief executive of Ettinger, said that buyers in the Middle East and China were asking again for “Made in England”, after preferring French and Italian brands for several years.

Moves to develop a new generation of luxury firms have gathered momentum in the past year under the auspices of Walpole, the luxury-trade association. It launched a Brands of Tomorrow programme that appoints a mentor to up-and-coming companies. Robert Bensoussan, the former Jimmy Choo chief executive, liked Bremont watches so much that he bought into the company.

John Ayton, the founder of Links of London, another Bremont investor, said: “Brands of Tomorrow enables them to see what they could achieve. We’ve had some good, successful British companies that have led the way and the encouraging thing is to see this new wave coming through.”

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