Europe key market despite Brexit, say SW business owners

More than 70 per cent of region's exporters looking to Europe to fund growth, according to Thomas Westcott survey

Despite the looming prospect of Brexit the overwhelming majority of businesses in the South West looking to export are eyeing Europe as part of their 2017 expansion plans.

That's one of the headline findings of a far-reaching survey into South West businesses' growth plans carried out by leading independent firm of chartered accountants Thomas Westcott.

Thousands of small to medium sized companies were asked about their expansion strategies and what they believed would be the biggest hindrance to those aspirations.

When asked "what will be your biggest barrier to growth?" more than a third (34 per cent) chose the result of last June's EU referendum, which will see the UK withdraw from the European Union as the biggest threat to their plans.

However, when asked "which overseas markets are you considering expanding into?" a full 71 per cent indicated mainland Europe was their main target.

"What this tells us is that while business owners and markets generally hate the uncertainty caused by the Brexit vote they have no intention of letting that stand in the way of their growth opportunities," said Shona Godefroy, partner at Thomas Westcott.

She added: "Another significant potential barrier to growth will be the withdrawal of our current free trade agreements within the EU. As soon as possible the Government needs to clarify which new trading arrangements will replace the existing agreements so that businesses can get on and start trading again across the continent."

Other perceived barriers flagged by Thomas Westcott's "Growth Survey" included access to skilled staff and finance, growing property and IT costs and government red tape.

Shona Godefroy said: "Here in the UK a combination of ongoing red tape and spiralling costs, coupled with the continuing Brexit saga, is holding back a great many businesses who are keen to expand to create wealth and prosperity for the South West.

"However, displaying the resilience and entrepreneurial spirit that makes our SME so great business owners are ready and poised to enter Europe as a way of fuelling their expansion."