UK bike maker gears up for chaotic Brexit

LONDON, Feb 18, (RTRS): Isla Rowntree, the founder of British children’s bike maker Islabikes, has resorted to stacking spare parts in meeting spaces and office rooms as she gets ready for a potentially chaotic no-deal Brexit next month.

But the inconvenience of finding the space for six months’ worth of stock is small compared with the financial consequences, she says.

Islabikes decided in September that it needed to prepare for the risk of delays at Britain’s ports after Brexit by stockpiling the parts it buys from a supplier in Vietnam at its premises in Ludlow, a pretty market town in western England.

Its preparations are typical of many companies – including world famous firms such as RollsRoyce, Airbus, luxury group Burberry – who have depended on the ability to move goods easily between Britain and the rest of the world.

They are facing the possibility of border delays from new EU customs checks on goods after March 29, unless Prime Minister Theresa May can win new concessions from the EU that heal the split within her Conservative Party.

British factories last month stockpiled goods at the fastest rate seen in any Group of Seven nation since records started in the early 1990s, according to the closely watched IHS Markit/CIPS surveys.

Far from a simple act of preparation that can be reversed easily, stockpiling will have big consequences for manufacturers’ finances, no matter how Brexit turns out.

“It has a massive, massive cashflow implication,” said Rowntree, a former professional cyclist who started Islabikes after realizing that most children’s bikes were heavy and poorly designed.