‘Move upmarket to beat Brexit backlash’

It says exporters must move away from high-volume, low margin products to avoid the impact of potential trade restrictions with the EU.

Fastlane International says that, even though the UK Government appears to be in no hurry to trigger Article 50, British businesses can’t continue as if the vote had never happened.

Britain has committed to leaving the EU and, if the UK fails to achieve continued access to the single market, manufacturers and exporters must have plans in place to move their products and services upmarket; warns Fastlane’s head of consumer research, David Jinks MILT.

David cautions that UK manufacturers and traders should not be lulled by the current period of ‘phoney war’.

Says David: "Britain’s exporters know that trading with the EU could become a lot tougher shortly. UK businesses are holding their breath and hoping for the best; but they should also plan for the worst; and the imposition of duties on British goods being shipped to the EU could make sales of cheaper, high-volume products uneconomic.

"Right now, it’s very easy to believe nothing will change following our divorce from the EU. In fact, exporters are enjoying more favourable trading conditions than before the vote; thanks to the low value of the pound making UK goods a bargain abroad. The Fastlane Group is currently enjoying record number of shipments to the Continent because of the success of many of our business customers; but UK companies will be in a very different place if free access to the EU market is not secured. Large, low value items, such as some car parts, will incur high transport costs and potentially steep tariffs. The best bet is to look to smaller, high value items which are not reliant on small margins to make a profit."

Fastlane has already seen a rise in upmarket products shipping to the EU post-Brexit. While some low value exports are down; high-end, hand-crafted products that can command greater profits are up.