9 distie bosses on how Boris Johnson's Brexit deal impacts their business
Execs from nine top distributors in the UK on how Brexit has impacted their business and whether the deal has provided clarity on trade with the EU
Alex Tatham, managing director, Westcoast
What changes did Brexit bring to your business after 1 January?
The biggest change by all means is to the Incoterms that we sell to UK customers to be able to help them export their goods into Europe - which a lot of them need to do. That is effectively DAP (delivery at place) versus DDP (delivered duty paid). Everyone would clearly like us to take care of the duty, but we can't do that. So actually, our terms are DAP with our customers and now we need to tell them the implications of that and how we can help them through that.
The good news is that we're doing a great job in Ireland because we can do DDP because we've got a fully registered business in Ireland. While our Irish business and Northern Ireland business faced issues on 1 January, it's now really well settled and things are flowing relatively smoothly and our freight forwarders are doing great on that.
Now we're looking at how we can make it more positive going into mainland Europe. It really is more about the implications of shipping DAP into the EU and making sure UK customers understand the implications.
Shipping goods from the UK to mainland Europe is not necessarily our core business but it's the sort of things we help do and it's important that we can help our UK resellers to be able to do that.
Has the deal provided more clarity as to what Brexit means for your business?
It feels as though there have been lots of things improving from day one on 1 January. The situation has improved from that point onwards and there have been lots of points of clarification.
Was I always clear what was happening? Yes. But there are implications of the various changes that were made whether there was a Deal or a No Deal. And there are changes to be made and lots of implications as to how we can help our customers and how vendors are helping. It didn't stop on 1 January; actually, when it became a reality lots of things changed at that point.
Click through to find out how Exertis coped through the initial weeks of January when the new UK-EU agreement came into effect
9 distie bosses on how Boris Johnson's Brexit deal impacts their business
Execs from nine top distributors in the UK on how Brexit has impacted their business and whether the deal has provided clarity on trade with the EU
Richard Hinds, COO UK&I, Exertis
What changes did Brexit bring to your business after 1 January?
The reality of the free trade agreement from a tech distribution perspective has not ended up as positively as we would have liked. Naturally the position pre-Christmas was quite positive but actually when you start to pick into it, there are complexities there.
We're no more advantaged or disadvantaged here than our competitors - but just things around customs checks where they didn't exist before is a reality and some of the rules around origin of goods creates practical and financial difficulties which is the reality of the agreement. So if you've got people saying it's all sunny side up then that's not the reality of the situation.
On 4 Jan did we export stuff and achieve next-day delivery on 5 Jan? No we didn't. And we'd be in good company in that regard. A 24-hour SLA is where we're operating at on exports today and we probably managed to get back to that position somewhere in week two. In terms of catastrophic Brexit impact with lorries parked up on the M20 and that sort of stuff, that didn't really unfold. We quite quickly got back to the position of export SLAs that we were doing before.
What we have seen that is slightly interesting is our inbound activity has been much less than it ordinarily is in January. Some of that points to pre-Brexit planning. So one of the things that we did in tandem with the vendors is make sure we were in a strong stock position at the end of Q4, which we wouldn't typically do at the end of the quarter. So we had as much resilience as possible against any practical impacts that could happen in January.
Has the deal provided more clarity as to what Brexit means for your business?
On the upside, the position we're in today is: we know what the answer is, don't we? Brexit certainty would be two of the words that appear together in more sentences than almost any other. We know where we are and we're clearly able to plan against that in a way that maybe we weren't before.
Brexit in terms of the free trade agreement is done. But how that plays out over time has a lot of road left to run. While I talk about us being in a good position, I don't necessarily believe everyone is in that same position whether that's distributors, customers or vendors.
I think in terms of those conversations we were having pre-Brexit, we fully expect those to happen to the same extent over the next three, six or twelve months as more and more people understand the reality of what that free trade agreement means to them.
The tramlines are set; we know what we need to operate in. I think there's a lot of movement from all parts of the supply chain to rebase themselves against those new tramlines.
Click through to find out what fundamental change Brexit brought to Nuvias' UK business
9 distie bosses on how Boris Johnson's Brexit deal impacts their business
Execs from nine top distributors in the UK on how Brexit has impacted their business and whether the deal has provided clarity on trade with the EU
Ben Carter, logistics operations manager, Nuvias
What changes did Brexit bring to your business after 1 January?
Leaving with a deal on Christmas Eve, as late as it was, is significantly better than not leaving with a deal at all. But has it changed anything fundamentally in how we interact with Europe? It has made it a bit more difficult and there are more ins and outs for us to deal with.
But we've got the structure in place in our business which allows us to work around that by realigning accounts with our European entities should the need arise.
The fundamental change we had to get used to was the Northern Ireland piece. We ran that one quite to the wire and I'm still not 100 per cent sure on the process. One of our guys spoke to someone from HMRC recently and explained our situation and they couldn't even tell us how to do it. So even the government agencies are pretty unclear on some of the things that have happened as a result of Brexit.
In my eyes, if we could get 90 per cent of things working properly, then we can deal with the 10 per cent. That 10 per cent we can treat as exceptions so long as it's not forever.
Has the deal provided more clarity as to what Brexit means for your business?
Has the deal given us more clarity? Yes. We understand what our duties and taxes are, whereas previously there was a concern over how it could look. So yes it cleared it up somewhat for us.
We were told before the Brexit deal was made that we shouldn't be planning any differently for a Deal or a No Deal. There are a couple of fundamental changes that would happen regardless; there were going to be borders, the Northern Ireland protocol was already in place and we knew we weren't going to be able to zero rate our movement of goods using the EU intra-community shipments. Those fundamentals were going to be the same regardless of Deal or No Deal. So personally I tried to keep the fact there was a No Deal on the table for quite a long time and just work on the things we knew were going to change.
Click through to find out how Westcon's Antony Byford has been preparing for the Brexit deal
9 distie bosses on how Boris Johnson's Brexit deal impacts their business
Execs from nine top distributors in the UK on how Brexit has impacted their business and whether the deal has provided clarity on trade with the EU
Antony Byford, managing director, Westcon UK and Ireland
What changes did Brexit bring to your business after 1 January?
We have clarity on what it means for us and our partners today and we've invested a considerable amount of time and effort in clarifying the optimum paths for effective ordering and fulfilment between the UK and EU, both for our own people and our partners.
Has the deal provided more clarity as to what Brexit means for your business?
I think a measure of our clarity on this is that we have partners who haven't worked with us for a while now coming for advice and guidance on how best to operate in the new trading arrangements.
Obviously Brexit is done from a legal and political perspective, but the business effects of the new trading arrangements will be felt for a long time as everyone adjusts. We prepared early and have listened to our customers' needs and concerns, so for us it was largely a known quantity as it unfolded. We can only manage and influence our own performance rather than the external factors that form the trading environment, so we place our confidence in our abilities rather than how ‘done' Brexit is.
Click through to find out if the Brexit deal has bought clarity for Target Components' MD Paul Cubbage
9 distie bosses on how Boris Johnson's Brexit deal impacts their business
Execs from nine top distributors in the UK on how Brexit has impacted their business and whether the deal has provided clarity on trade with the EU
Paul Cubbage, managing director, Target Components
What changes did Brexit bring to your business after 1 January?
The impact on us has been getting goods into Ireland. Which was pretty much suspended for a while at the beginning of January because of new paperwork requirements and all sorts of data which I suspect will get trimmed back eventually - because it's very cumbersome and fairly problematic.
There's all sorts of additional requirements. So now you have to list out the contents of every box within a consignment, you need to put the country of origin on all products - all stuff that's very difficult and cumbersome to do and wasn't required previously.
For us it's an inconvenience because we haven't been able to satisfy our Irish customers as seamlessly as we would've liked. For other businesses doing a lot of European trade it must be a monumental nightmare for them. It's a very small proportion of our business, but for other disties it's a significant chunk of the business.
Has the deal provided more clarity as to what Brexit means for your business?
We've got the "certainty" of the deal. Everybody knew it was coming and we knew most of the changes that were likely to be required. We already had the details from the couriers for example and we had already set up our EORI numbers all this sort of thing.
We were ready for it and I think everyone was. But then again, the reason couriers had to put a pause on everything was because some weren't ready for it. The deal didn't change too much with regards to requirements, and we're not an industry that was particularly vulnerable to it flipping one way or another like fisheries or financial services.
Click through to find out which distributor was planning for a No Deal Brexit as a 'very real prospect'
9 distie bosses on how Boris Johnson's Brexit deal impacts their business
Execs from nine top distributors in the UK on how Brexit has impacted their business and whether the deal has provided clarity on trade with the EU
David Watts, SVP UK and Ireland, Tech Data
What changes did Brexit bring to your business after 1 January?
We worked extremely hard in the run-up to Brexit to ensure that we had robust plans - regardless of the eventual outcome. This was something we did in collaboration with our vendor and reseller partners.
We have had to make some adjustments to our delivery schedule for Ireland, which we will continue to review with our carrier partners throughout the year. With respect to Northern Ireland, there is still some uncertainty around delivery process, but we are working together with our carrier partners and are shipping to Northern Ireland as normal.
Has the deal provided more clarity as to what Brexit means for your business?
We prepared with the assumption that No Deal was a very real prospect and put together a cross-functional central and country team to address potential impacts. We've made the necessary adjustments and our team has done a tremendous job to ensure continued shipments to the EU and Northern Ireland and to minimise any impact to resellers through this period of uncertainty.
Click through to find out how Exclusive Networks made changes to its export business
9 distie bosses on how Boris Johnson's Brexit deal impacts their business
Execs from nine top distributors in the UK on how Brexit has impacted their business and whether the deal has provided clarity on trade with the EU
Graham Jones, managing director UK&I, Exclusive Networks
What changes did Brexit bring to your business after 1 January?
Some of the finance companies are definitely moving over to Holland and to France. So there's a slight shift in the focus of the vendors to local government and central government, defence, UK utilities because it's a safer business.
Vendors are recruiting again and focusing more on local industries and the big projects are back. We look at our Q1 outlook, and we're confident - never arrogant because it's a strange old business, but the forecast is OK across the vendor lines.
Last year we did about £30m in what we call exports. So we've got a very slick export department where we preconfigure products for vendor and handle all the exports to sometimes 30 countries. We offer that as a service - getting round the importer records, the VAT back, and all sorts of rules and regulations.
What the problem is, if we do the same again for that 30 countries now, we're doing it from outside of Europe and not inside. So what we did in January we spent a couple of weeks moving that physically to Dublin but all the paperwork is done in the UK still. We didn't move the team, we just moved the operation to Dublin.
So as far as the vendor is concerned now, from 1 Feb it is seamless and it just works as normal. But that came after about three to four weeks of chaos.
Has the deal given more clarity as to what Brexit means for your business?
There is certainty, the deal is done. There's pieces of paper and rules you can read. The impact on us was anarchy for the first two weeks frankly. We were lucky, because my region includes Ireland and also we're part of a big group.
I think there will be business shifting to other parts of Europe because of Brexit. If people are moving their financial HQs from London to Amsterdam, they can't rip out their infrastructure yet. But the investments will be going to Amsterdam and we are seeing some of that.
Click through to find out how Varlink prepared for Brexit
9 distie bosses on how Boris Johnson's Brexit deal impacts their business
Execs from nine top distributors in the UK on how Brexit has impacted their business and whether the deal has provided clarity on trade with the EU
Mike Pullon, founder and CEO, Varlink
What changes did Brexit bring to your business after 1 January?
We worked very hard to understand the requirement for pre-shipment clearance for Northern Ireland, and then right at the 11th hour that requirement for our products was changed so there were no special actions that needed to be taken.
So Northern Ireland looked like it was going to be hellishly difficult, and we contacted our customers to say there would be some changes. But then we had to re-write to them and say there's been a change of tact from the government and we can make shipments to Northern Ireland while there's this grace period
Has the deal given more clarity as to what Brexit means for your business?
We didn't expect there was going to be anything in the deal that would agree to a customs union. We were quite clear about what the future held from pretty early on. As soon as the UK government got its mandate it was clear there wasn't going to be a customs union which was the only thing that would've made things smoother for us than they are now.
We don't actually know what's going to happen with shipments to Northern Ireland once the grace period has ended, so there's still a degree of uncertainty there. But we have no uncertainty at all about what it means to export to anywhere now. We understand what the rules are - if the carriers have got themselves in line to deliver the options they're offering to us, we can in turn speak to our customers and know what we can offer them.
Click through to find out which distribution boss thinks there has been poor clarity over what Brexit means for the industry
9 distie bosses on how Boris Johnson's Brexit deal impacts their business
Execs from nine top distributors in the UK on how Brexit has impacted their business and whether the deal has provided clarity on trade with the EU
Justin Griffiths, UK managing director, Infinigate
What changes did Brexit bring to your business after 1 January?
The vast majority of our business is software, so while there are certain appliances we do sell from time to time, we're not really impacted as a business.
What we do ship, because we're part of a European entity, we're able to navigate and take advantage of inventory in other locations where they don't have the same level of restrictions.
Initially there was and still are stock shortages for sure. So the supply chain has been affected. Even for bits we do order, there are several weeks added on to lead times.
It is a logistical nightmare for sure and there are other implications around currency and taxes that come into effect. But for us I haven't been impacted in the grand scheme of things. In fact it has been quite good for our business because, where we do compete on inventory, we've managed to work within our own organisation to secure stock whereas those that don't have that luxury have struggled to get stock. So it has played to our advantage really.
Has the deal provided more clarity as to what Brexit means for your business?
I think what has been poor is clarity full stop. Covid has been a bit of timely distraction from Brexit, so Brexit has taken a back seat. If Covid wasn't around then it would be top of mind and I imagine there would be bigger discussions to be had. We haven't really seen any clarity in terms of process, time lines, what the impact will be on a sustainable basis moving forward - all things we need to be made aware of. It is all very leaflet-driven with no detail.
I think the detail will continue to be worked out over the coming months. Boris' message is that it won't impact trade, everything is in place and it will all be alright. But in terms of detail, we haven't seen much.
As an organisation, we haven't been on Brexit calls either, which we were doing two years ago. We used to have weekly Brexit calls discussing the impact on supply chain, how we're going to manage currency ecetera. Those kinds of meetings have been off the table for a while.