Brexit has made running an international business so complicated “you need a PhD in customs” to make sense of the new rules, an entrepreneur has said. Polly McMaster, founder of The Fold, an upmarket women’s workwear brand with celebrity fans including the actresses Olivia Colman and Dame Helen Mirren, as well as the Princess of Wales, said the impact of the UK’s withdrawal from the European Union in January 2021 has led to the company spending “hundreds of thousands” on consultants to help resolve the situation. The main issue is caused by the “origins of goods” rules that require complex paperwork to be filled out for each step of a garment’s creation. In the case of The Fold, its raw materials are made in Italy before being sent to Poland to be hand stitched, after which the finished garments are imported to the UK. Only a third of The Fold’s sales are to UK-based customers, with the rest being shipped to the US or back to Europe. “The reality is that even the shipping companies don’t know the answers,” McMaster said. “What ends up happening is they are so pressed for time, one of their shipping people has X amount of seconds to process something at a border. And they don’t know what they’re supposed to do or what the tariff is, so they always go for the least risky, which is the most expensive option for businesses.” McMaster says that the added manpower and costs of dealing with Brexit-related issues have affected profit margins by “5 to 7 per cent, which is the difference in a small business like ours between being break-even and making a loss. The negative impact on us has been excruciating.” Brexit ‘excruciating’ for womenswear brand thetimes.co.uk/article/8b8899…
@LizWebsterSBF All these rules are down to the EU, trying to punish us for daring to leave. Maybe have a go at them, it's their fault, even you know that
@RPatterson9652 @LizWebsterSBF The decision to leave the EU was ours. The decision to leave the EEA was ours. The decision to leave the SM/CU was ours. Leaving all 3 means you lose all the advantages of being in them, and you take the consequences of that without expecting others to help you out.
@RPatterson9652 @LizWebsterSBF Colin from Portsmouth 🤣
@RPatterson9652 @LizWebsterSBF And you lot get annoyed when people imply you might be a bit dim. 🙄🤦♀️ #Brexit
@RPatterson9652 @LizWebsterSBF That's just absurd.
@RPatterson9652 @LizWebsterSBF Always knew Cartman was a tory! 😅 Blame others and stomp off.
@RPatterson9652 @LizWebsterSBF Crazy talk. The EU rules that Britain now faces were in place, known about, voted on, and in some cases proposed by the UK. They apply to all third countries not just the UK. It is actually what the UK government imposed itself through Brexit. The TCA is shaped by UK red lines.
@RPatterson9652 @LizWebsterSBF We decided to exit the EU’s exclusive ‘club’. The rules that apply to other non-EU countries now apply to us. Confusing sovereignty with isolation, we cut ties with 27 of our neighbours, which led us to sacrifice our single market freedom for self-imposed isolation.