Dan had helped us reinforce our belief in our new strategy; we are now putting together a plan around actively targeting and expanding this area of our business.” They have struggled with the additional resource cost, admin, bureaucracy-wise and so that’s why you end up at a point where exports of construction products to the EU are still more than one-third lower than before.” Statement from Andrew Lang, company founder "This was an incredibly difficult decision to make, particularly as we have a development pipeline of new products, but it was personally important to me to wind operations down whilst the company is still solvent and without owing creditors. I'm having to press pause for now to take some time away and evaluate what form Cycloc might be able to take in the future." The paperwork is also incredible. To begin with, some of the countries wanted the paperwork in their language. Now we send them a commercial invoice with a whole lot of customs information. Plus, it's four or five times we have to print it. However, Lang outlined how business has been affected by Brexit, saying it is disappointing to have lost out having "remained faithful" to manufacturing in the UK.

The problem is that BrExit intrinsically was going to make a lot of people lose out. When your economy has been in a closely integrated free trade area with a bunch of other economies, it is just inevitable that *many* businesses will have business models that are (by intent or just organically) dependent on customers and/or supply lines within that free trade area.Brexit and the bike industry: we ask UK brands, retailers and distributors how the new rules are affecting them Brexit has had a profound impact on us,” said Andrew, who founded Cycloc in 2006. “As a company our whole range has been developed with a European aesthetic in mind. Sadly, trading with Europe has now become very difficult and expensive. Andrew says the firm is now – in addition to its existing direct customer market – building an active strategy focussed on built-environment stakeholders. So BrExit proponents may think there are benefits (ironically, by being able to enter into other FTAs, even though the EU is pretty open with FTAs - and it was often the UK who objected to new FTAs, such as the India deal) and can speculate that - one day - some in the UK might benefit from some FTA that they might not otherwise have had. However, that doesn't change the _certainty_ (predictable before, and evident after BrExit) that there will be many businesses who are disrupted and lose out - sometimes badly enough that it shuts them down.

Underlining that the company remained committed to making its products in the UK, he said: “"It is very disappointing. I am a naturally optimistic person, but in a sense it is very difficult to be positive. In places like China or Hong Kong I’m having to learn a lot about the culture, about buying habits, and how British products are viewed. It would have been easier in Europe, but because of how bad the Brexit actually was, we’ve actually had to be quite reactive rather than being proactive,” he said. I’m having to press pause for now to take some time away and evaluate what form Cycloc might be able to take in the future.” He said it was “very difficult to be positive” about the situation, citing “Kafkaesque” rules introduced for trading with EU member states.One of the things that is quite disappointing about this whole process is that from the outset, we made an active decision to manufacture in the UK. We’ve remained faithful to that and it feels as though the UK government hasn’t necessarily helped us.” Presumably you mean the civil service? They could certainly act as a drag on process or advise caution but at the end of the day they'll be doing what has been legislated for. But could it be the legislation / agreements were ropey due to ... political reasons? Yes the bus persuaded 500,000 people to change their minds... Possibly the most effective bit of political advertising ever. As most of you will be aware the last few years of trading have been extremely challenging for the cycling industry, something we have not been immune to. We have faced rising operation costs alongside negative impacts of COVID and increased barriers to selling in the EU as a result of Brexit, something that has been magnified by our wish to continue to manufacture in the UK.