Brexit friction pushes UK companies to set up Dutch trade hubs

Brexit friction pushes UK companies to set up Dutch trade hubs

While the UK government launches a search for Brexit opportunities one group has already discovered them: Dutch warehouse owners.

An influx of British-based companies to the Netherlands has swelled as they struggle with the disruptionof a customs border across the North Sea.

More than 90 investors have built or rented distribution space since 2017, half of them in 2021, according to government agencyInvest in Holland.

They included Huboo, a logistics provider to online retailers. Martin Bysh, chief executive, said it had to act after clients deserted as Brexit negotiationswent to the wire in December 2020. “We lost about 10 per cent of our revenue, which was clients leaving the UK for Europe,” he said. “It was a chaotic landscape.”

Boris Johnson’s government repeatedly said it was prepared to leave the EU on December 31 2020 without a trade deal as it haggled with Brussels. Eventually, an agreement for tariff-free, quota-free trade was clinched on Christmas Eve. But this introduced customs, food safety and tax controls after a year-long transition period.

“We didn’t know what to do, and there was almost no government advice,” said Bysh. Many smaller companies simply stopped supplying the EU because they could not understand the paperwork and worried they would be