January this year I posted a thread which outlined the issues my company was facing just 15 days into Brexit & the truly negative effects that were being realised. Now over five months later have things improved?
Now we have a better understanding of what Brexit really means to our business, our suppliers globally & the logistic issues. None of it is easy & none of it has been fun to deal with. It’s actually been the most difficult 5 months of my career.
The first major hurdle is getting the entire supply chain to work as one. For decades producers, shippers, importers and retailers all knew their place in the cycle which was seamless. That is now not the case and the chain is fragmented at best.
Frequently shipment are delayed because producers and shippers don’t know the procedures despite my company supplying details of how to enable a shipment correctly. So lead times have increased dramatically – this leads to out of stock situations.
Once your customers have run out of stock this causes issues with forecasts on other lines and, before too long, an entire product range is not performing correctly. This is actually happening right now with several customers.
So here we have the first barrier to trade caused by cumbersome paperwork & producers not being sure of procedures because of Brexit even though they are still within the EU. For most of my suppliers they thought Brexit was nothing to do with them: big mistake.
My suppliers have started to understand that the entire supply chain from winery to retailer is adversely effected by Brexit. This will never change. My role in this chain is to get the stock moving & this is hugely challenging on a daily basis.
Before Brexit day we had applied and been approved for all of the following registrations, EORI number, Vat Number, GBWK number, Chief account access, ARWS number, deferment account, U.K. EMCS access, GBRC number. Still this was not enough.
It was only after the deal was done we discovered that we also needed a Movement guarantee to use our bonded facility fully, an organic importer license to sell the wines & of course still to come is the prospect of Vi-1 certificates. Thats 11 different barriers to trade.
Now remember the PM said his deal was good deal because it continued frictionless trade with the EU. That is a lie plain and simple, and he does want the wider public to know that.
On the EU side every producer has had to get a REX license to be able to export to the U.K. Sign a legal document with the logistics companies to allow them to clear stock out of the EU on the Ex1 & in turn be charged for this cost. So that is yet another barrier to trade.
All of this has already had a massive impact on how we trade & will do forever. Even this week it has taken 4 days to clear stock from our Bond because HMRC changed the coding within Chief without notice regarding wines above 15 per cent.
Will get better as time keeps moving, right? Well, probably not. Currently the U.K. border force in RORO [roll on, roll off] ports like Dover are not checking lorries passing through simply because they don’t have the infrastructure required to do so.
However once HMRC does have RORO border controls some time in late 2021 early 2022 I am sure we can all agree an actual barrier will slow things down further. Moreover the prospect of Vi-1 from January 2022 does not fill my industry with joy.
Once again the only person that wants Vi-1s is @michaelgove it would seem. The entire industry & every other wine producing nation in the world is against them. But Gove now seems reluctant to have that meeting he suggested. Wonder why?
Logistics companies have been at the very brunt of Brexit, some have performed well but others less so. But all of them have increased their costs and all of them are taking much longer to do the job.
It’s my opinion that Covid has masked (excuse the pun) the true effect of Brexit with half our economy being shut for 5 months; however, that’s about to change. We have seen our stock pile disappear over the past 10 days.
The next few months will be the real test and I suspect the pressure on all supply chains will show. I also expect costs to increase further as capacity becomes harder to find and lead times become longer again.
So in conclusion Brexit thus far has done zero to help my industry. It has put considerable obstacles in the way of day to day trading, added substantial costs & time to produce the same services as a pre- Brexit world.
Moreover my company has been trading for over three decades and we were well prepared for this shit show. For a start-up it would be impossible to offer what we do from scratch today. That can’t be right.
Well look what turned up while I was out. @WineMerchantMag can smell the Tories’ BS in the air too.
Again thankful for another 1M impressions for this thread thus far. I only want all people to really know the reality of what this country is doing to its self thank to a mis-guided political policy. Thanks.
Originally tweeted by Daniel Lambert (Wines). 🇪🇺🇫🇷🏴🍇🥂 (@DanielLambert29) on 14/05/2021.
