Published the Feb 07 2020 in "News"
What Happened?
The first time we started worrying about Brexit was during the vote in 2016.
Four years ago, the majority of those who voted, chose to leave the EU: it was unprecedented.
Brexit means leaving the European Union, which induces many problematic issues, such as the citizenship, the Irish border and the divorce bill.
As a result the UK had a hard time finding a deal that suited both the EU and the UK parliament.
It took years of votes, deadlines, resignations and extensions between the EU and the UK, while the UK kept risking a ‘No-Deal Brexit’; which we’re convinced would’ve meant drastic and unpleasant consequences for the UK.
After Theresa May, on the 24th of July of 2019 Boris Johnson took upon himself to ‘get Brexit done’ and did it: on the 31st of January 2020 the UK exited the EU.
However, there will be serious consequences for the UK and there are changes and deals yet to be made. The process should be completed with the end of 2020.
How will Brexit affect us?
Recently, One To Wine has been interviewed by French TV: l’Info du Vrai, broadcasted on Canal+ on January 30th.
Here is a retranscription of what is said in the video.
Maxime Maiano (One To Wine’s Founder): “We arrived in London in 2016, just before the Brexit referendum. The first and direct effect that we felt, as a company, was the fall of the pound.”
Indeed, for a start-up, Brexit means a price increase of import and stocks taxes.
“Unfortunately, we don’t know what will come next, but we make sure to follow the development of the Brexit and make sure to be reactive and ready to adapt to any change that may affect our company or the services we offer to our clients.”
The main threats would be the suppression of the bonded warehouses with suspended taxes, that allows us to pay the excise taxes only when our wines are sold; if it was to be suppressed tomorrow, we wouldn’t have the cash to pay all the taxes in once.
Moreover, the time of good treatments by the customs.
UK has only a few custom agents; treating all the goods entering the UK could take weeks or months before we could receive our wines, which would affect our rotations scheme.
The interview :
Here’s the translation of the interview for those who don’t speak French:
Commentator: “Historic day for the UK: it’s the last time the country was officially part of the European Union.
An exit that is still hard to digest for Londoners, who in 2016 had, by a large majority, said no to Brexit.
So, what will be the impact of Brexit on London’s entrepreneurs?
Maxime Maiano is a French person arrived in London in January 2016. As wine merchant, he settled here just before the Brexit referendum.
It was without counting on the majority of ‘yes’ votes.”
Maxime: “The direct effect we felt from Brexit was the fall of the pound.”
Commentator: “As a result, import taxes increased and stocks became more expensive.
To compensate, Maxime had the idea of diversifying his business by turning to corporate events in particular.
Indeed, today the main activity of One To Wine is the catering service, the organisation of tastings or cheese and wine pairings, for individuals and businesses. »
Maxime: “Today we remain attentive to the evolution of the market and to the various publications concerning the exit of the UK from the European Union in order to be reactive and adapt to it”
Commentator: “Uncertainty hangs over England, a leap into the unknown which in any case will remain in history”.
Here we are with this blog post a bit different; we have been asked this question so many times that we thought our community deserved to know how we might be affected.