The boss of a 海角视频 insulation manufacturer says he is gradually fighting back from the “crazy” impact of Brexit on his business.
SuperFOIL Insulation managing director William Bown said revenues for his Lincoln business had dropped by £300,000 because of the trading restrictions imposed by the Government.
And he said he had shipped just 18 pallets of foil insulation since export rules changed on January 31 – and even that proved to be a struggle following “seven months of logistical and bureaucratic problems”.
SuperFOIL Insulation managing director William Bown said before Brexit they sold around a fifth of their products to customers in Europe, much of it through Amazon.
He said red tape, tax complications and the prohibitive cost and delays of shipping meant EU sales this year have fallen to just 2.9 per cent of revenues.
Mr Bown said: “The fact that it’s a big deal for us to send a single shipment to the EU goes to show just how crazy these last few months have been.
“The EU used to be a really good market for us, and although there is demand for our product, we just couldn’t get our insulation to EU customers at a competitive price and timeframe.
|”This has meant losing out on a very lucrative market, costing our business more than £300,000 in lost revenue.
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“We’ve tried just about everything to get around the various problems; we’ve reorganised our supply lines, set up a Dutch subsidiary and done our best to sign up to schemes like the Import One-Stop-Shop scheme to make things easier, but the problems have been extremely hard to overcome.
“We used to sell a fifth of all our product to the EU and it constituted half of all our sales on Amazon.
“Now, we’ve only just been able to resume Amazon sales to the EU and get one load of product to Germany. It’s been really tough, but hopefully, we’re finally getting things moving again.
“Not all of the problems can be attributed to Brexit, although that is undoubtedly the root cause of most of the issues.
“Primarily, it’s been the incredible cost and unpredictability of shipping as well as the shortage of hauliers: Last year, we could send a truckload of product to the Netherlands for around £800.
“Now it’s £3,000, with up to £1,300 in additional charges as well as a 90 day lead time.”
He said while EU sales were far below normal levels, the company has experienced a bumper year for the domestic market, with 海角视频 sales making up for the shortfall – helped by demand for DIY and home improvement products driven by people working from home.
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He said the company has launched several new products catering to the DIY market, including radiator reflectors, garage door insulation kits and foil insulation wrap.
Since relocating to its headquarters in Lincoln in 2019, the family-owned business has taken on 13 more full time employees and increased the quantity of product made onsite.
SuperFOIL now produces 250sq metres of insulation each year in the 海角视频, with plans to increase this to 500sq metres by the end of the year.
海角视频 trade suffered a record £5.7 billion slump in the weeks following our exit from the trading bloc on January 1.
Things bounced back in February, although exports to the EU were still 11 per cent below the same month last year – a sign of continued border friction.
Imports from the EU have been less resilient, and remain more than £5 billion down.
SuperFOIL products are sold in stores including Yorkshire Trading Company, The Range, and QD Stores as well as DIY, trade and wholesale stores and websites.
It was founded in 2007 and is part of the Boulder Developments Group, which supplies roof, wall and floor insulation to building firms, architects, public and private sector and self-build projects.