Despite Halloween being the third proposed UK departure date, firms such as Pooch & Mutt, which supplies pet food to stores such as Waitrose, Sainsbury’s and Pets at Home, are experiencing their own horror show early. The company stockpiled around £400,000 of extra product to eat prepare for a no deal Brexit before Mrs May begged the EU for yet another extension last night, with Article 50 now delayed until October 31, Bloomberg reports. As a result of Mrs May’s desperation to scrape her controversial deal through Parliament – which has even seen her defy the calls of aides to negotiate with Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn – the company have had to take out a loan to cover its stockpile.
Founder Guy Blaskey also said the cost of storage means they cannot hire new staff.
He added: “It just screws us. Until we know what’s going on, we need to keep our stock levels high.”
Norton Hydraulics Ltd., a maker of hose fittings for manufacturers, said it is keeping around £250,000 of extra stock from Italy.
Neil Palmer, operations director, said: “It’s a bit of a nightmare. It’s going to be two years in a row of stockpiling from August onwards to counteract the uncertainty of what’s going on.”
He added: “It’s just going to take more off the bottom line.”
The erratic rise and fall of the pound has also had an effect on importers with prices pushed up.
Helen Wang, who owns Abakus Foods, which is sold on Amazon.com and by Ocado Group Plc, said: “It’s just completely out of control. We already operate on a very thin margin.”
Mrs May is facing fury after she accepted the EU’s offer of a UK a six-month Brexit delay.
The extension was a compromise solution thrashed out by EU leaders after French President Emmanuel Macron dug-in against a longer delay lasting into 2020.
The deal quickly drew criticism from Tory Eurosceptics and prompted questions about how long Mrs May can stay in power.
Jacob Rees-Mogg, prominent Brexiteer and chair of the ERG, hit out at the extension of Article of 50, saying is “not a good idea” as he laid in to the Prime Minister for going back on her way after she ruled out a Brexit delay.
