Fortnum & Mason is aiming to resume exports to Europe in summer 2023 as the last few years of Brexit troubles begins to ease.
The luxury department store is in the process of opening its own warehouse and infrastructure network on the continent to help transport and distribute its stock, Fortnum and Mason CEO Tom Athron told The Grocer.
In March 2021, the store was forced to end exports of its biscuits, jams, and hampers due to Brexit-related customs complexities that impacted 50% of its orders.
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At the time, orders from the Europe accounted for roughly 5% of total revenue.
The business has also been working with one of its wholesale partners, German catering business Trabitsch, to offer a range of 40 products to European customers.
It comes alongside the publication of the company’s latest financial results on Monday, which revealed that year-on-year turnover grew 42% to £187m – around £55m growth – over the last year.
However, it has seen prices rise by 5% to 10% due to soaring inflation, which have been passed on to customers “to a degree”.
“We can’t wait for the government to establish better relations with the EU, and then relaunch, we have to go sooner than that, because otherwise, our European customers will just forget who Fortnum’s is,” CEO Tom Athron said.
“It’s easier to export food business to business, than it is business to customer. Essentially, we will export to ourselves and then sell to customers from there.”
The news comes as Fortnum & Masons launched its sustainability drive with refillable biscuit tins and paper bags in its food halls last summer.
