Historic lace company faces being ‘killed off by our own side’ after Brexit levy hits
The boss of a Derbyshire lace manufacturer which can trace its history back three centuries says Brexit has said company faces being “killed off by our own side in a couple of years” because of levies imposed on it.
Chris Mason, the managing director of The Cluny Lace Company, which is based in Ilkeston, says that after a recent audit, HMRC decided to levy an 8% duty on the return of all the lace it manufacturers in the UK, sent to France for dyeing, and then gets back for further finishing.
Mason made the revelation in a letter to the Financial Times, in which he revealed the levy has been backdated over to two year to when Brexit came into being.
He added: “We have spent more than 200 years building our business, fought for 30 years against the global textile trend of moving to the Far East and have now been killed off by our own side. We all lose.”
Cluny Lace is an independent Leavers Lace manufacturer, set up in 1845. It is run by the eighth and ninth generation of the Mason family.
No other manufacturer in the world produces the same range of patterns and these patterns are unique to Cluny Lace Company, according to the firm’s website.
