British fashion and beauty businesses have been war-gaming a hard Brexit — which could come as early as April 12 — opening factories, warehouses, logistics and distribution centers on the European continent in a bid to dodge potentially onerous WTO tariffs on imports from the European Union.
According to a joint report from analytics company IHS Markit, manufacturers are stockpiling products at record highs. Harrods is one of those brands. Michael Ward, the retailer’s managing director and chairman of Walpole, which represents British luxury businesses, said: “The continuing uncertainty is impacting the ability of businesses to plan for any form of Brexit outcome.
“As a sector worth an estimated 50 billion pounds ($65.6 billion) to the U.K. economy, a the British luxury industry is profoundly impacted by the lack of clarity from the government on our future relationship with the EU.”
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This story was reported by WWD and originally appeared on WWD.com.
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