Following the upcoming appointment of Boris Johnson as Prime Minister this afternoon, Thomas Brereton, Retail Analyst for GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company, offers his view on the no-deal Brexit:
The most pressing issue for retailers remains clarification on Brexit, both in terms of timing and the nature of the withdrawal. But numerous retailers – mainly the supermarkets – have expressed concerns over an October deadline, anxious about the potential increased pressure to supply chains and storage space coinciding with Halloween and preparation for the busy Christmas period. Boris’s appointment has seen the probability of a no-deal Brexit rise to c.25-30%, augmenting concerns over the supply of fresh food, toys and essentials such as pharmaceuticals and contraceptives. In response, he must now make swift progress in bringing a withdrawal agreement to the table to allay retailer’s concerns.
Retailers will also be watching to see if Mr Johnson can stimulate consumer confidence. GlobalData’s July Consumer Sentiment Tracker shows both future and present sentiment declining from the previous month, and despite being marginally higher than the lows witnessed at the start of 2019, this will likely worsen as we approach October if the Government fails to provide clarification over Brexit.
Outside of Brexit, the British Retail Consortium and retailers including Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Next are becoming ever more vocal about the destructive impact of business rates on physical retailers. But while Boris has called for cuts to business rates alongside corporation tax during his campaign, details of this potential move have not been provided, and we do not expect him to make the bold changes that the retailers require.
5 Responses
Get it done… No Deal and leave, there is no other way, there was no other way once we voted out.
Only the deluded believe otherwise.
We choose to leave, there was no reason to do a deal with the EU, we were leaving, all we had to do was plan to leave, not mess about for years trying to establish a deal with a party that does not want to give us one.
On planning to leave, if they choose to want to give us a deal they would have come to us.
It really is quite simple
No deal is better than a bad deal
Parliament has said as much with multiple votes against the current deal
parliament needs to honour the vote to leave ,
not flim flammed and manipulated, by those who fail to accept the result of the referendum,
the UK is a democracy? ?????
3 years of not knowing what will happen has caused more damage to the economy than a swift no deal will do. The lingering uncertainty is what is causing problems with business.
Transition periods, temporary situations etc will not attract business as it prolongs this uncertainty.
I for one welcome a quick exit now, unless we can strike a deal that benefits us.
If this was our online business would we accept uncertainty or something that didn’t work in our favour? I think not