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Brexit has been a “disaster” for smaller publishers exporting to Europe, distributor Turnaround Publisher Services has warned, although Gardners has stressed border delays have eased recently.
Some publishers have reported delays of up to 18 days in getting deliveries to customers in Ireland, while the Independent Publishers Guild said some of its members had to suspend direct orders to EU customers because of the problems.
Last week, Publishers Association c.e.o. Stephen Lotinga echoed those concerns, saying his members had reported problems with “additional paperwork, unexpected costs, the need for additional legal advice on complex new rules and supply-chain disruption”. The PA has called on government to provide extra Trade Access Programme funding and guidance on confusing new leglislation.
Bill Godber, m.d. of Turnaround, told The Bookseller Brexit had made importing from the UK “commercially unattractive” for European firms. Meanwhile, smaller UK publishers trying to export to non-EU countries faced comparatively fewer problems, he said.
He explained: “For a country that should pride itself on being one if the world’s largest exporters of books, Brexit, to date, has been a disaster. Perhaps some of the larger international publishers have managed to find a way to work with the new regulations but for the smaller, independent publishers it’s now easier to get books into the hands of customers in Nigeria, Uruguay or Jordan than it is to supply booksellers in the UK’s largest export book market - i.e. Europe.
“Putting aside the bureaucracy, the increased shipping times and additional costs faced by UK based distributors, we’re told by customers in Europe that the economics of importing stock from the UK now makes it a commercially unattractive proposition; increased freight costs, additional taxes and administration charges being made by shippers, customs clearance agents and the like make trading with the UK deeply unattractive. And, if that wasn’t bad enough, the gains made by the pound against the Euro whilst making importing from Europe theoretically cheaper, just bangs another nail into the exporters' coffin. This doesn’t mean that EU customers will stop buying British books but it does mean they’ll buy fewer and with less enthusiasm. That much is obvious.”
He said recent reports from the Road Hauliers Association that loads to the EU were down by 68% seemed likely, while a Cabinet Office claim that outward traffic is running at 95% of normal “beggars belief”.
According to the French customs office, French imports from the UK fell 20% in January while exports were down 13%, the Financial Times reported. German exports fell 30% year on year in January, while Italy reported a 38% drop in exports to the UK and a 70% in imports, the newspaper said.
Godber said: “If you make it more expensive for European customers to buy books from the UK and introduce additional bureaucracy which adds delays to the supply chain then it would be extraordinary if sales remained the same.”
However, Gardners said any delivery delays were now a matter of days instead of weeks and insisted the wholesaler's preparation for Brexit meant things were running smoothly, despite “a lot of red tape and bureaucracy to cut through”.
Nigel Wyman, sales and marketing director, told The Bookseller: “The reality of getting things into the EU at the moment is all about paperwork. As long as you get this correct there are generally minor delays into the EU now, based on you having your paperless documentation ready and waiting for the shipper to take it across the border.
“The delays are better than they were and have reduced over the past month or so, it’s now days now rather than weeks. And then it’s down to the receivers of those parcels understanding the terms, who is paying the duties and taxes on those. Those are the real things that cause confusion and delays.
“As long you have your paperwork correct — harmonisation codes, country of origin, weight, value — the delays are now just days compared to where they were at the beginning of the year.”
He added: “I don’t have any real concerns from our side of things because we were as Brexit-ready as we could be, it’s just about the retailer understanding the difference between now and pre-Brexit when they get their parcels. I actually see things getting better because people will be getting used to the new normal way of trading, people are getting used to the post-Brexit era.”
Baker & Taylor executive chairman Gareth Powell said his team had overcome early logistical challenges and, while there were still hurdles with Irish trade, he was looking forward to continued growth in Europe and beyond.
He admitted: “There were challenges throughout January but we were well prepared given the uncertainty. We have settled all logistic issues and are shipping to our export customers and locations satisfactorily. There are unnecessary commercial and administrative burdens around shipments to countries such as Ireland.“
Alex Robertson, business development director for CBL Distribution, said the firm's long experience of dealing with customs duties when importing or exporting to non-EU destinations had been invaluable in recent months. The company has also had to ensure the correct paperwork is completed for its consumer direct fulfilment service.
He said: “The biggest challenges have been around the various carriers as they were all working to different rules in a sense which meant some carriers wouldn't supply some countries whereas others would and vice versa so adapting and keeping up with this has proved to be time consuming as these vary on a daily or weekly basis and we are still in a very fluid environment. Fortunately we have a dedicated customer service support team who are very experienced in dealing with the carriers so our actual issues occurred have been minimal to our publishers and customers.
Robertson added: “I personally hope and believe things will settle down within a few months and with Covid and then Brexit it created the perfect storm. It is important to note that pricing has risen considerably over the past few months and it is a mix of both of these that has contributed to this and is actually quite foggy to understand sometimes what is driving what.”