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Impact of Brexit on your business

ended 26. July 2021

Tomorrow at 09:30am, the Office for National Statistics is publishing a detailed report on the combined impact of the pandemic and the UK's exit from the EU on businesses that sell their services or products internationally, or are sensitive to an international customer/client base. Brexit has been massively overshadowed by Covid-19, but are its effects yet to be felt? Qs to answer include:

  • Has your business been impacted by the UK's official departure from the EU, or do you expect it to be?
  • Has the full impact of Brexit simply been kicked down the road by Covid-19?
  • Are you worried about the impact of Brexit as we emerge from the pandemic? If so, why?

Please keep your response to no more than 2 paragraphs. Think soundbites, not essays!

If you're a Premium user, your response will be edited to ensure it is as strong as possible and grammatically tight. Premium alert_responses also go towards the top of the viewsWire and are more likely to be seen by journalists.

8 responses from the Newspage community

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Kate Allen
Owner at Finest Stays
"Due to Brexit, recruitment in the hospitality industry is a dull headache, much like a hangover after too many glasses of red. The government has outlined a new points-based immigration system (which came into effect from January 2021) for EU and non-EU citizens. "There are no specific provisions for unskilled and low-skilled entry. This is a major blow to the recruitment of staff in the hospitality industry, particularly as many employers cannot find domestic applicants to fill those vacancies. We need a plan, and we need it now."
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Debbie Porter
Managing Director at Destination Digital Marketing
"The biggest Brexit issue I’ve experienced is in trying to get goods to Northern Ireland in the food, plants and chilled goods sectors. "Guidelines on moving goods to Northern Ireland were only published on 31 December, after months of Government messaging telling us to ‘be prepared’. "Businesses have been impacted immediately by these changes, but the Government is clearly just winging it and hiding behind the Covid-19 crisis to bury this story. "Longer term, the lack of freedom of movement for workers across the EU is the bigger concern. We are fast becoming a little island with fewer prospects for its resident businesses and citizens."
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Ashley Thomas
Director at Magni Finance
"As a High Net Worth mortgage broker, we have not yet noticed any significant fallout from Brexit. "Undeniably, Covid-19 has had an effect across all sectors. For the housing market, it has been very busy, mainly fuelled by the Government implementing the Stamp Duty holiday. "While that has now been reduced, the UK is still seen as a strong investment for property, in particular London where demand from overseas investors continues to grow."
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Adam Bamford
COO at Colleague Box
"As a corporate gifts company that has built its reputation on delivering on time every time, we have very much felt the impact of Brexit. We receive many orders from Europe but the complexities compared to how simple it was to send pre-Christmas 2020 means that sending these shipments become far too complex and costly, even for smaller items. "The ever-changing regulations mean that we are considering stopping all overseas shipments, which will impact our sales as companies want to send every recipient the same gift from the same company so we don't just risk losing the European business but the entire order. "I don't feel any hope for the short/medium term as it seems like the complexities are only going to get worse."
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Sarah Jordan
CEO at Y.O.U Underwear
"As a small, sustainable business whose sales from Europe account for 20% of our revenue, Y.O.U Underwear has been hit hard by Brexit and continues to struggle with the impact of extra shipping fees and import taxes. We are also having difficulty with the new tax systems and VAT issues; these things may be easy for big businesses to sort out but smaller ones are really struggling with the red tape. We hope that the combination of more time to fix and finesse the systems now needed and the easing of lockdowns across Europe will help boost sales again."
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Bryony Lewis
Founder at T & Belle
"As a small product business shipping globally, the effects of Brexit have really started to kick in recently. The VAT changes and introduction of IOSS registration earlier this month have meant that I am only able to process European orders through marketplaces such as Etsy that have the systems in place to collect and report tax correctly. This in turn affects my bottom line and means that P&P costs have to increase for my European consumers."
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Shirley Leader
Owner at Velvet & Rose
"As well as many other areas of the economy, Brexit has taken a back seat in the Government priority list. Businesses like ours have found out the hard way as to how Brexit has impacted us. With no clear guidance on extra costs, we are having to pay extra duty and unexplained courier charges. "Alongside delays in shipments from Europe, these are all pain points that businesses would like to avoid. They say the consumer will ultimately face the costs of Brexit, however many small businesses feel that they have to absorb the costs themselves as nobody wants to increase the retail price of a dress by £15-£20. We're hoping that trade agreements can be looked at in further detail as this is now impacting where we source our merchandise from and who we sell to."
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Nancy Shafee
owner at flights of fantasy
"Importing, or trying to import raw materials from Europe, has already caused problems. Costs have risen and some suppliers have imposed minimum order restrictions, which are not always possible to accommodate by small businesses."