British bike maker pedals on, with Brexit deal up in the air

British bike maker pedals on, with Brexit deal up in the air

SeattlePI.com

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LONDON (AP) — The team at Brompton Bicycle Ltd. thought they were prepared for Brexit.

Bosses at the British firm, which exports hand-made folding bikes to 47 countries, looked at the uncertainty swirling around the U.K.’s decision to leave the European Union and started stockpiling parts.

Yet with just over a month to go until Britain makes a sharp economic break with the EU, Brompton faces uncertainty about supplies and unexpected new competition from China, all amid a global pandemic. Its experience is evidence that Brexit is set to be bumpy, even for businesses that have tried to get ready.

“We’d built up this fantastic stock for the worst-case Brexit scenario,” said Brompton chief executive Will Butler-Adams.

Then the coronavirus pandemic struck. Orders dried up as stores closed during the spring lockdown, only to surge once it was lifted.

“We struggled to get the parts back in again,” Butler-Adams said. “So we’ve had to eat into our Brexit stock, which has saved us in many respects. But it now means, having been prudent and got it all organized three years ago, we’re now sitting here with a month to go and we’ve got no Brexit stock and we’re facing Brexit.”

Brompton is just one of thousands of British companies bracing for huge changes on Jan. 1, when Britain leaves the economic structures of the 27-nation bloc. The U.K. split from the EU politically early this year, but remained part of the bloc’s economic embrace during an 11-month transition as the two sides tried to negotiate a new free-trade deal to take effect Jan. 1.

But months of tense and often testy negotiations have not resolved differences on fishing rights, fair-competition rules and how to settle future disputes. Intense talks must produce either a breakthrough or a...

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