Sunday, October 29, 2023
Another Brexit disaster
The Independent reports on the view of top economists that Britain’s beauty industry has suffered a £850m slump in exports to the EU since Brexit.
The paper says that experts believe that the sector has suffered from customs hold-ups and increased red tape costs since the UK quit the bloc in January 2020:
The Oxford Economics study, commissioned by the British Beauty Council, discovered a marked decline in exports to EU countries despite sales holding steady in the rest of the world.
The research also found that the decline in EU workers had created skills shortage in the sector, while small beauty firms have been “disproportionately damaged” by post-Brexit barriers.
“Covid is not the problem – Brexit is the problem,” British Beauty Council chief Millie Kendall told Bloomberg. “People have pulled out of territories.”
Sarah Chapman, founder of Skinesis, told the website her company has stopped exporting to Spain and had been hit by major problems in selling to Italy and others.
“Our distributors are now really insisting that unless we set up an EU warehouse, they won’t work with us,” she said. “Once somebody’s bought from you, if it takes so long to get a product, they just don’t buy directly from you again.”
They add that the latest study by the British Chambers of Commerce found that 49 per cent of UK exporters have struggled to boost sales, with some 28 per cent of small and medium sized manufacturers reporting a decrease in exports in the last quarter, while 45 per cent said there was no change.
Now, that definitely was not on the side of the bus.
The paper says that experts believe that the sector has suffered from customs hold-ups and increased red tape costs since the UK quit the bloc in January 2020:
The Oxford Economics study, commissioned by the British Beauty Council, discovered a marked decline in exports to EU countries despite sales holding steady in the rest of the world.
The research also found that the decline in EU workers had created skills shortage in the sector, while small beauty firms have been “disproportionately damaged” by post-Brexit barriers.
“Covid is not the problem – Brexit is the problem,” British Beauty Council chief Millie Kendall told Bloomberg. “People have pulled out of territories.”
Sarah Chapman, founder of Skinesis, told the website her company has stopped exporting to Spain and had been hit by major problems in selling to Italy and others.
“Our distributors are now really insisting that unless we set up an EU warehouse, they won’t work with us,” she said. “Once somebody’s bought from you, if it takes so long to get a product, they just don’t buy directly from you again.”
They add that the latest study by the British Chambers of Commerce found that 49 per cent of UK exporters have struggled to boost sales, with some 28 per cent of small and medium sized manufacturers reporting a decrease in exports in the last quarter, while 45 per cent said there was no change.
Now, that definitely was not on the side of the bus.
