‘Our products are going to cost more’
BREXIT is a big issue for Paola Dyboski- Bryant, founder and ‘ bubbler- in- chief ’ of Dr Zig’s Extraordinary Bubbles. Its environmentally-friendly giant bubble toys are exported worldwide.
Paola set up the company ten years ago from her kitchen table in Bangor, North Wales – because her son Ziggy ‘loved bubbles’.
During the first lockdown, business boomed as its bubbles were a hit with people wanting to send relatives a fun, uplifting treat.
‘ We’re an international company,’ says Paola. ‘I’m originally Italian and we have Italian and Polish employees. We work with refugees and care homes, children’s hospitals and special needs individuals, so we’re outward-looking.’
She says Brexit is ‘seriously’ going to affect businesses, especially smaller ones.
So far, Paola has registered for VAT in Germany and France – ‘our German registration took seven months’ – and has set up a new Dr Zig’s EU company in France so she can trade from inside the EU. This means she will have to file accounts from those countries as well as the UK.
The business here will also be affected, she says: ‘Every import and export now requires paperwork which costs money, as does t he customs broker and t he freight forwarder.
‘ Suddenly our products are going to be much more expensive as we’ve got to incorporate all these new costs into our prices.’
Paola has been talking to her suppliers – both in the UK and overseas – to ensure they all have an EORI (economic operator registration & i dentification) number.
‘ It could be months of chaos before it all settles down,’ she warns.