Feature
“The UK is still a large
market and a good
opportunity, it’s not
going to scare everyone
away, but where is that
breaking point?”
– Rodney Hoinkes
further.”
Nicola Macdonald, EN editor: “Have
exhibitors expressed any concerns?”
RH: “At the moment, everyone is still
going ahead. When it becomes a real cost
in labour, preparation, and actual cost then
that will potentially have a strong impact.
The UK is still a large market and a good
opportunity, it’s not going to scare everyone
away, but where is that breaking point?”
AH: “Within our membership they’re not
reporting changes, the main reason being
we haven’t left Europe yet. We haven’t even
had to consider the fact that we might not
leave with a free trade agreement or we
might ‘crash out’, as the tabloids would say,
on a World Trade Organization (WTO)
agreement. My feeling is that we’re 18
months to two years away from starting to
see it affecting confidence in any market.”
AA: “I would think the weakness of
sterling might entice congresses, if they’re
going to save against the pound.”
MW: “The airshow is sold in pounds so
for us that’s a great opportunity. We’re not
feeling any effect, we’re ahead of where we
were previously. We have yet to see any
impact.”
AH: “On the contractor side, it’ll become
cheaper if somebody wants to build an
exhibition stand or hire furniture, but that
will be offset by the fact that probably about
80 per cent of our members’ raw materials
are coming from outside of the UK.
“A lot of them are still not in a position
where they’ve grasped what that is going to
mean. We’ve talked about a contingency of
looking at a 20 per cent increase in the cost
of raw materials, especially if we leave on
WTO terms, but we don’t know. If we leave
with an agreement then we are stuck with
the currency difference, which is something
that happens from time to time anyway.
The issue would be leaving and continuing
with a pound that’s weaker than it was, and
then also entering into a system of WTO
negotiation where we are paying increased
tariffs on raw materials.
NM: “Do you think the SMEs are in more
danger than larger companies?”
AH: “Massively, yes I do.”
The perfect storm
AH: “Every time we have contacted [the
government] and asked for an update, there
has been a woeful lack of information, apart
from the fact they have many many websites
full of really confusing information.
“We were trying to map the perfect storm,
where there were four things that needed
to go wrong to prevent an international
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