Northern Ireland after Brexit

Businesses prepare for customs changes

Flurrybridge Enterprise Centre is ground zero for Brexit on the island of Ireland. Situated in South Armagh, just yards north of the border, it is home to businesses that sustain almost 300 livelihoods, many of them by shuttling goods along the east coast artery between Belfast and Dublin.

Leaving the site, any van exiting Flurrybridge must cross south into the Irish Republic – even if it is travelling north to Belfast. So for businesses here, the stakes could not be higher as MPS prepare to vote on whether to accept Boris Johnson’s Brexit deal. If passed, the status quo will be preserved for 14 months, handing them a degree of certainty and buying time for preparation. A no-deal Brexit would upend their business model.

In total, almost 4m vehicles a month travel the 15 border crossings tracked by Northern Ireland’s statistical agency. Any kind of “enforced differentiation” between North and South as a result of a no-deal Brexit would be damaging, says Conor Patterson of the Newry & Mourne Enterprise Agency, which runs Flurrybridge.

He points to Deliverme.ie, a parcel-forwarding company that allows customers in the South to have online orders sent to its premises and then delivers them at a lower cost than Amazon or Royal Mail. At present, they don’t have to care what you buy, says Patterson. “It could be everything from coffee to bags, to shoes, clothes or manufactured widgets.” In a no-deal Brexit, goods would need to be categorised, tariffs would be due and thousands of customs declarations forms would need to be filled in.

Many businesses at Flurrybridge have admitted to Patterson they have explored leaving the centre and relocating south of the border in the event of a no-deal Brexit. But higher rent and labour costs in the South mean this plan is not viable for some.

The new Brexit deal would keep the North-south border flowing, avoiding checks and delays at or near the frontier. Northern Ireland would retain access to the EU customs union and, from 2021, potentially benefit from future free trade deals struck by the UK with both the EU and third countries.

But the insertion of a customs and regulatory border down the Irish Sea will add to the cost and complexity of doing business with the island of Great Britain.

Industry groups have given the deal a cautious welcome. They are chewing over the details, frantically trying to model the effect on costs and supply chains. “It’s like trying to eat an elephant,” says one.

For Richard Hogg at Precision Gear

‘We were sitting here a week ago wondering if we were going to have to shut the business down’

Company, “the outcome of a hard Brexit doesn’t bear thinking about”. Based 35 minutes from Belfast, the company turns over £2m a year repairing and servicing industrial gearboxes used in wind turbines. His business takes on Continental competitors by being fast and flexible, flying teams and parts across Europe to service turbines at short notice. “We were sitting here a week ago wondering whether we were going to have to shut this all down,” he says.

He would have preferred the deal negotiated by Theresa May, which ensured unfettered access to Great Britain as well as the EU, but still wants MPS to back Mr Johnson’s deal. “There is a bit of ironing out to do but it doesn’t seem too bad to me,” he says.

“We can just hope that it goes through now and that we get some sort of a deal and we can all move on and get on with life,” he says.