Don’t be left behind on January 1

BUSINESS TO PREPARE FOR THE NEW RULES – AND DOING SO MIGHT TAKE LONGER THAN YOU THINK

The countdown to the end of the UK transition period is on, and businesses must take urgent action if they want to continue to trade with Europe.

Exciting opportunities are on their way, but firms will have to make a number of changes to ensure goods, data, people and services can continue to f low smoothly between the UK and EU.

The UK Government has put a raft of measures in place to offer support to companies throughout the transition period – more information can be found at gov.uk/transition.

I knew I needed to prepare for the end of the year so I went through the gov.uk/transition checker tool... I realised I needed to act jolly quickly

Imogen Russon-Taylor, founder of Kingdom Scotland, the first fragrance house north of the border, has had a hectic year, but she’s now turning her attention to what she needs to do to take advantage of new opportunities at the end of the transition period.

“Life’s been so busy and there’s so much going on, but the future is export and the end of the transition period is going to be important for the business,” says Edinburgh-based Imogen, whose luxury fragrances are sold throughout the world.

“I have big ambitions and exporting to Europe is part of that. In crisis times and called “the lipstick effect”, where people will make luxury purchases.

“I knew that I needed to prepare for the end of the year so I went through the gov.uk/transition checker tool and my first job was to get the GB EORI number. I have the UK trademarks for my perfumes and the brand and if you do it within six months for Europe you can get European trademarks – so I realised I needed to act jolly quickly. I’ve also looked at the different rules for packaging.”

Imogen has also checked VAT on the ingredients she imports. “Everything is made in Scotland, but I do import ingredients from all over the world – the Scottish climate doesn’t always lend itself to fields of rose. The Netherlands is important for perfumery oils and the south of France has other amazing oils.”

Kingdom’s perfumes – which, Imogen says, “bottle Scotland” – are popular t hroughout Europ e. “Fragrance makes you feel centred,” she says. “It’s mood altering, it can make you feel calm, or transport you when we can’t travel. I’ve had so many requests across Europe asking to buy my perfumes, so I’ve been working behind the scenes with ecommerce partners and stockists such as Harvey Nichols. There’s been demand from boutiques across the continent, particularly Germany, Scandinavia, Spain and Italy.

“The i mportance of exports is why the end of the transition period is going to be a crucial time for the business. I recently took a dangerous goods course – the vast majority of perfumes sit in alcohol – so I can export to all the countries in Europe and beyond.”