So many businesses we are talking to now are feeling the heat from Brexit. The degree to which they are is dependent upon the levels of trade they do internationally of course, but the effort to get your processes right does not take heed to the size of your business.
Organisations that do masses of trade with continental Europe should logically be the ones most affected, but our view is that these are the lucky ones. They can usually afford to fund the incremental cost increases from paperwork management and delivery delays. It is the smaller organisations that suffer the most.
Smaller organisations doing limited trade need to spend just as long in learning the processes and finding the right support as their larger trading counterparts. This eats massively into their profit margins for supplying to or buying from the European mainland.
All businesses are being hit hard by the changes to the time it takes to get product to the continent, the increased costs being charged by hauliers, and of course, one of the greatest challenges of all (for those in the LTL/FTL market) is simply finding a haulier willing to take your product. According to the Road Haulage Association, a staggering 65% of Continental European trucks returning to the mainland having delivered to the UK are going back empty.
Some have answered this question by simply turning off their supply routes. This comes with a cost in terms of growth potential and lost market share, as well as the customer service and reputation issues this creates. Small businesses can spend what seems like an eternity to develop a presence in overseas markets, so giving that up is an absolute disaster in some cases, but in those cases it may seem the only realistic option open to the business at that moment.
Bigger businesses are considering their options to put some form of supply chain footprint on the continent to help give them a leg-up. This is simply not possible for small businesses to do without the right help. But, the right help is out there if you know where to look.
Similar to companies in the UK that specialise in providing service to SMEs particularly for e-commerce activity, there are continental service providers who can offer the same. We urge those organisations who are tempted to turn off their flows to the EU to consider this as an alternative approach to developing flexible supply chain solutions for their business.
Finding those companies and organisations that can help achieve such ambitions can be easier than you first think. There are a range of supply chain solution organisations who you can turn to [like Logistics Consulting] , to help you find your way. You can resource your business for a limited period of time with interim specialists who can help you get your operations established (or re-established) on the continent, or you could approach specialist consultancy companies who will do the same, but perhaps with a different level of cost.
What’s important is that UK organisations do not ‘give up the ghost’ on their European ambitions. During these most turbulent of times, few businesses can afford to forego valuable sales revenues without exploring every possible opportunity to preserve these markets and customers first.
