A damning study has raised more serious questions about the benefits of Brexit after it was revealed one in seven EU companies with UK suppliers has moved part or all of their business out of Britain.
A survey of over 2,000 supply chain managers by the Chartered Institute of Procurement and Supply (Cips) showed that commercial links have already been heavily disrupted as part of the Brexit process, with a third of UK suppliers forced to increase their prices because of a weaker pound.
Another 41 per cent plan future price rises to offset Brexit-related issues, such as diverging regulations and border costs.
There was also an increasingly negative attitude to UK suppliers among EU companies, the survey found, with 42 per cent of EU27 companies saying they did not think British products stood out from the crowd.
John Glen, an economist at Cips, said: “Businesses have little choice but to pass on some of their rising costs to consumers in order to protect their profit margins and stay in business.
“A hard Brexit is currently the only scenario that companies can adequately prepare for due to a continuing lack of clarity around the future trading environment”.
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