The certainty of the future trading relationship with the EU looks bleak. Our news headlines go something like this "EU demands Britain to drop threat to breach international law - or brexit trade talks are off".
Now is the time, all companies should be asking their suppliers, especially in the cardboard tubes industry, whether they are prepared to trade on WTO rules with the European Union.
We've broken it down to 3 easy questions for you to put to your UK cardboard tubes producer:
1. What experience do you have importing from outside the EU ? Do you have a customs comprehensive guarantee and deferment account with HMRC?
Many UK manufacturers of paper cores, whether it be carpet tubes or postal tubes, rely on EU suppliers for their raw materials. These well established mills have been supplying recycled paper into the UK for many years and longstanding trading relationships are commonplace in the paper core industry. While this worked well during the UK's membership of the EU, if there is no trade deal then these relationship might come under strain when new ways of working have to be implemented quickly. Check in detail that they've got the relevant accounts and registrations to import worldwide, if not they might have issues supplying you with label cores, tape cores or even film cores.
Over the past 2 years JPT (Just Paper Tubes) has been sourcing, approving and buying sustainable paper from the UK and the rest of the world. We took the step to look further than the EU, as part of our Brexit preparations a few years ago. That hard work is paying off. We are currently in a place where we can source all the raw materials we need from the UK and more importantly when it comes to Brexit; trusted suppliers around the globe. We are already operating on WTO terms with some of our largest suppliers, from around the globe.
What preparations have you taken should a no deal mean that the British Pound loses value against major currencies such as the Euro and Dollar?
Any well prepared cardboard tubes manufacturer should have financial instruments in place to reduce the impact the currency fluctuations might have to their business. The markets expect to see a high level of volatility over the coming weeks and months, predominately driven by COVID-19 second waves in developed economies, an uncertain US Election and the likelihood of no UK/EU trade agreement by the end of the year increasing.
We have enough deposits of $ & € to cover our paper demands over any short term volatility. To protect us long term, we've negotiated hedging agreements which are in place so we can buy foreign currency at an already agreed rate. This will help us reduce any exchange rate volatility over the no-deal horizon.
How do you think your supply chain will be affected if you see long delays at major UK/EU transit points such as Dover? What are your mitigation plans?
Trusted news sources have been reporting over the past few weeks that the UK Government has taken powers to construct lorry parks near ports such a Dover to be used should customs requirements slow down the port operations. This may cause stock shortages for cardboard tubes manufacturers for days or weeks.
JPT has mitigated these potential delays because our imports come predominately via container on deep sea ports/docks which should continue to operate as normal.
What makes JPT the leading cardboard tubes manufacturer in the UK?
At JPT, we are fully prepared for WTO terms between the UK & EU. Although like every organisation we would prefer an agreement to be made, we've been making changes to shelter our business. One of our core values is: The customer matters most.
We believe we demonstrated this during COVID-19 where we kept our production open 24 hours a day, to keep vital industries such as food an pharmaceuticals in supply of our critical products. We are also the only cardboard tube manufacturer to-date to publish a covid secure risk assessment online for full transparency. We've always led the pack when its come to manufacturing technology, and innovative customer service.
We have taken the same approach when it comes to brexit, so if you are unsure about your current supplier, or want to know more about what we can do to support your business with its paper tubes needs, please get in touch. By phone, email, fax, live chat, call back service, facebook, twitter, letter or even Whatsapp. 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
