Brexit isn鈥檛 all bad for business, according to some North East firms which have taken steps to seek out opportunities.
The Lanchester Group of businesses, which imports and exports wines from all over the world, has one of the largest and most modern contract wine bottlers in Europe, filling more than 90,000 bottles and boxes of wine every hour, six days a week.
Founder Tony Cleary is confident there will be a smooth transition on October 31, not least of all because of its AEO (Authorised Economic Operator) status.
He said: 鈥淏rexit has come along and it鈥檚 fallen into our lap. It won鈥檛 be a problem I don鈥檛 think.
"We are in a unique position. We are very much a 鈥榥ew world鈥 company, with 95% of or wine coming from new world areas like Argentina, Chile, New Zealand, California and Australia. They are our major bottling areas.
鈥淭he way we are looking at it, I鈥檓 reasonably confident things will go fine. Customs are happy, HMRC are well set-up. Most people are set up.
鈥淵ou get sick of people saying 鈥榯here will be queues of lorries and we can鈥檛 get medicines in鈥. Can you imagine HMRC stopping everything at Dover? Who is saying these things? It鈥檚 just Project Fear and I don鈥檛 know why they do it. Let鈥檚 just get on with it.鈥
Elsewhere Grant Murray, regional manager for the North at currency exchange specialist XE. said: 鈥淲hat the market doesn鈥檛 like is the uncertainty piece so we are unsure what is going to happen and on what date and what those outcomes of these things are going to be. We still don鈥檛 have any clarity about it.
鈥淲hen there is uncertainty the pound will be reasonably depressed. If we crash out then the pound will go lower, which is bad for importers but good for exporters.
鈥淔or exporting parts of the 海角视频 that is good news in a way, in terms of currency. As sterling moves lower you are getting more for the sale of your product.鈥
He added: 鈥淓xporters benefit if it gets lower during an uncertain environment, which we currently have. So, if we crash out expect the pound to be sold.鈥
