Business leaders highlight resilience amidst the crisis

Speakers at the latest UK Israel Business Virtual Breakfast webinar outlined how their companies have been coping with the toughest period British firms have faced for decades.

The impact of Brexit and the Covid-19 pandemic were addressed by a panel which included Howard Moss, managing director of Astonish Cleaning, Mark Rothwell, sales and operations director of Skye Utilities & Skye Communications and Alex Turner, joint managing director of TheBusinessDesk.com.

The event’s main sponsors were Town Centre Securities (TCS) and BigChange and the webinar was introduced by Colin Glass, chairman of UK Israel Business (North East) and director at Murray Harcourt.

The webinar was chaired by Jonny Ross, founder of Fleek Marketing.

Howard Moss

Moss said his company’s provision of cleaning products had helped it during the public health crisis.

“At times it’s almost been embarrassing talking to other people whose businesses have been badly hit,” he explained.

“Of course we’d much rather there was no Covid, but it does mean our hand washes and germ killing products have been in huge demand.

“The supply chain is now back to where it was pre-Covid but between March and July was a really challenging time.

“The global giants are in a much stronger position to lean on the supply chain, and that left a shortfall for everyone else.”

Turner explained how TheBusinessDesk.com has successfully switched to virtual events for the last few months, due to the pandemic halting its normal programme of face-to-face gatherings.

He said Yorkshire’s response to Covid-19 had been helped by the diverse nature of its economy and the sense of community the county has, with people supporting each other through difficult times.

Rothwell noted that he hears more optimism from companies he deals with in Leeds and West Yorkshire than from businesses in the Midlands and further south.

With the Government still undecided about what kind of Christmas the nation can have, he and Turner said people may need to accept short-term pain by not celebrating as they would normally.

Rothwell added: “We need to put this into perspective. If we can’t spend Christmas with our friends and family we should understand why that’s the case – it’s for the longer term good of the country.”

The panel was also asked about the likely effects of Brexit, with Turner noting that despite years of intense debate and speculation people still don’t know precisely what will happen on January 1 and what rules will be in place by then.

He said: “We’ve had adverts telling businesses to ‘be prepared’, but the business owners shrug their shoulders and ask ‘what should we be prepared for?’

“There’s just one big intake of breath at the moment, with everyone crossing their fingers and hoping it will be O.K. through sheer will and hard work.”

Rothwell  said Brexit was likely to have a knock-on effect on energy prices in the UK.

“All our clients say we’ll see a spike in prices,” he said. “We get so much of our energy from the Continent that most analysts think we’ll see a negative impact initially. I think it will level out in two or three years time.”

Commenting on the impact on his own business, Moss said: “Most of what we receive comes in from the mainland UK, not the EU and most of what we ship out is to outside the EU – to the Middle East or Far East.

“But we do a lot of trade in Ireland and because of the legislation we have to update all our packaging.

“We still have no definite rulebook which says ‘this is what you’ll need to do from January 2’. So I think this will drag on well into 2021.”

However, he said Brexit should also provide an opportunity for the UK to strengthen its supply base.

He said: “We mostly buy our packaging from UK sources and we’d like to the see the UK produce even more quality packaging through companies investing in the right equipment and skillsets.

“If places in Germany and France can produce these things, there’s no reason why we can’t do so here.”

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