Name: Claire Howard
Company: Claire Howard Jewellery
Based: Norfolk
Trade: Jewellery
Trading since: 2016; opened a physical shop in 2024
Stopped selling to the EU: Yes
Estimate of business lost: 5%
Government communication?: None
First heard about GPSR: November 2024
Have you been contacted by customers in the EU?: Not yet, sent out a missive about not being able to sell anymore
MP: Jerome Mayhew - Broadland and Fakenham (Conservative - Shadow Business and Trade Minister)
Claire's story in her own words:
"You're still taking a risk and putting stuff on the high street, even though everybody says the high street is dead. And so I think GPSR is a huge issue, but it's almost like the straw that broke the camel's back. And let's not even get started about electricity bills and insurance. GPSR, it's just another thing where small businesses just feel like they're being constantly hammered.”
“I don't have the money to find an EU representative. I wouldn't know where to look. And the professional organisations I'm involved with, they don't have them in place. So, that means taking a risk on somebody when you have no idea who they are. And would you give £1000 to them? No, £1000 is all my “on costs” for a month. I'm not going to do that.”
“Often you're the only person in your business doing the admin, so you're just going to go, “I haven't got time to look at it, I haven't got time to investigate”. It's gone.”
"It almost feels like a lack of respect too. And there is a lack of… it's almost like it is the big businesses that are the important ones. The small businesses? Oh, don't worry about them. Perhaps they'll make a bit of noise about it on social media, but they're small businesses. But actually where is that respect for the part of the fiscal market we represent?”
“And small businesses, there is nobody who works harder to make them work, because, and this is a very simplistic thing, but you don't just turn up and get to the end of the month and you get your salary. You literally have to chase every thing, every email, and every person"