Name: Andrew Hutchings
Company: Retro Supplies
Based: Norfolk
Trade: Repairs vintage computers and designs bespoke parts
Trading since: 2022
Stopped selling to the EU?: Yes
Estimate of business lost: 33% of trade was with EU.
Government communication?: None - found out on social media
First heard about GPSR: End of November 2024
Have you been contacted by customers in the EU?: Yes
MP: George Freeman - Mid Norfolk (Conservative
Andrew's story in his own words:
“It's been a huge drop in trade for me because of this, and it's sad because I get a lot of people from Europe saying, “We really want your stuff”, but I'm like, “I don't want to”, because the fines are potentially bad if I get this wrong.”
“At the moment, it's been a handful that’s come out and actually explicitly asked [for my products], but I know, I can see from the sales figures, the sales are down because of it. There are people, obviously that don't approach, they just see the banner on the top of my site saying, “Unfortunately I can't sell”.”
“I've not really had time to fully research how I'm going to comply if I'm going to get there. But from the few companies I've looked into, it's going to cost me almost as much as I make selling in Europe to actually comply.”
“Now it's harder to send to the EU than it is to sell to America. And that's worrying in itself because I can get on a train and be in the EU.”
“My wife owns a shop down the road in fact, which stocks local makers’ goods. So you're talking candles, wood turning things, stuff like that. A lot of the people that she stocks - there’s 50 different sellers in there - and almost none of them were aware of this. And a lot of them sell their products to the EU online as well, so a lot of them were unaware and were pretty shocked when they found out.”