The boss of a Bristol-based radiator company says Brexit red tape slashed its European exports from 40% of total sales to just 5% in five years – a collapse he calls “the Long Brexit effect”.
Phil Ward’s start-up, Eskimo, began selling high-fashion, energy-efficient electric radiators shortly after the UK left the EU in 2020. The product, based on new technology developed by Bristol academics, seemed tailor-made for Europe’s green ambitions. Orders flowed, and its Birmingham factory stayed busy.
“Eskimo’s EU exports fell from 40% to 5% due to Brexit red tape, echoing wider trade damage.”
But the zero-tariff deal agreed by Boris Johnson in December 2020 did not prevent what Ward describes as “red tape and paperwork not directly related to tariffs” that created delays, costs and “the expectation of hassle” for prospective customers. Eskimo stopped selling directly to European consumers entirely. A planned expansion into Germany floundered.
Its struggles are not limited to the EU. When Eskimo tried to export towel rails to Australia and New Zealand, it found those countries follow international safety standards heavily influenced by the EU’s CE mark – a reminder that one theoretical Brexit benefit, the freedom to diverge from EU regulations, has so far remained elusive for many exporters.
Ward’s experience mirrors a wider trend. The UK Trade Policy Observatory at Sussex University calculated a 26% reduction in the number of different types of UK exports by 2023. A separate study from Aston University Business School using five years of detailed trade data concluded a loss of 53.8% of export varieties and 31.5% of import varieties – measured as falls in the number of products sent to different EU countries.
A decade ago, many economists argued the UK would suffer longer-term economic damage by leaving the EU. Assessing that prediction requires comparing what happened with a counterfactual – a judgement complicated by the pandemic, the war in Ukraine and the energy price shock sparked by the conflict in Iran. But for Ward, the pattern is clear: “It could have been so much more.”