Name: Sybren Vis
Company: Carrynette
Based: Netherlands
Trade: Scottish and specialist goods
Trading since: 2001
Estimate of business lost: Up to 40%
Have you been contacted by customers?: Yes - some goods are no longer available from UK exporters
In Sybren's own words:
“The ironic part of it is that countries they would like to keep out of Europe are the first ones to have everything in place. They got the correct labelling, everything is in place. So it misses the exact goal they were trying to achieve. I understand that product safety is an issue. There have been so many wrong things on the market, but when the UK left the European Union they didn't catch up with the latest Product Safety requirements.”
“[When GPSR came into effect] within a couple of days we lost about 5 or 6 of them, of my 35 suppliers, so to speak, which is quite a lot. I get 80% of my goods coming from the UK. If that stops, then I might as well close shop because I can't get anything out here anymore.”
"Yes, absolutely [Brexit has impacted my growth]. I've calculated that I'm [spending] between six and eight hours a week calling with DPD, DHL, UPS, whatever, trying to get my money back, or at least trying to get someone on the phone."
"I've decided to go to Glasgow for one day [to convince my suppliers to continue selling to me], fly back and forth and have a word with all these suppliers and see if we can get them back, back on the ship again.”
“It's easier if I get stuff from Germany, if I call today, I will have it in tomorrow. No custom papers, nothing. No, I buy in on 0% VAT, no problem. [When the UK was in the EU] it was the same. I mean, if a pipe band urgently needed jackets, I could call them on Monday and I had them in, well, sometimes even two days, Wednesday or Thursday. And now it takes… I had a thing the other day. It was 9 weeks with customs.”
“And the other thing is that, something the UK really has to look at, is that there is a big chance that products will be produced here instead of the UK, so the market will shrink in Europe.”