Manufacturing giant ”Unilever” have made a big u turn as the company change its largely two country ( UK and The Netherlands) resource strategy as Unilever announce a move to change their current Anglo/Dutch strategy in favour of a UK central approach.   The company is also said to be pursuing a new central listing on the UK stock market, though according to the ”Telegraph”, the company will still maintain listed status in The Netherlands.

Unilever is the company behind such brands as Domestos, Ben & Jerry’s, Dove, Knorr, Lipton, Hellmann’s and many other household brands.

According to Unilever CEO, Nils Andersen; ‘Having a business environment that offers as much flexibility and responsiveness as possible will be critically important.  Unilever’s board believes that unifying the company’s legal structure will create greater strategic flexibility, remove complexity and further improve governance”.

As many of us will undoubtedly know.  Doing business within the EU has become more and more difficult, particularly for those companies looking to invest within many EU member states.  Due diligence, KYC, tarrifs on components and materials from outside EU have piled burden upon burden.  In many cases, doing nothing towards achieving the stated purpose but adding a huge administrative burden or just pointlessly repeating existing OECD or other international guidance and regulation.   Indeed, some of the regulation is simply a rehashing of existing legislation and can appear as EU legislation following what appears to be is simple plagiarism.  A cynic might say that the EU often appear to be taking credit for the work of others and propogandizing the ”new” legislation as an EU initiative.   Whereas a great deal of legislation appears to hit an ideological, rather than economic or regulatory goal.

This would seem to be born out in this latest case as Unilever have made it clear that the move to a UK centric structure will greatly simplify mergers, de mergers and acquisitions.

But this should come as no great surprise. Corporations have been working for over a decade, since the last Euro crisis, to mitigate EU political and currency risk.  For many, this has been resulting in the gutting of operations based in EU member states.  This can manifest in previously broad based activity being reduced to just local sales activity.  To the detriment of areas such as R&D. administration, customer service and of course, manufacturing.  The result of which has been starting to manifest in accelerating decline in manufacturing in those states which have previously been known for manufacturing success.

Many companies have been waiting for clear direction for as long as possible before making investment decisions.   The UK’s previous delays to simply get Brexit out of the way has done far more harm than even the worst Brexit doom mongers prediction.   There is a gathering confidence, as the future becomes clearer, for many businesses. Most successful businesses are agile and innovative.  In most industries, those that are not, do not survive long enough for Brexit to be real issue.  Of course there are exceptions.  The concern for the ports and shipping should be a concern for most of us.  But with plans being published and more importantly, the strategic mindset driving the planning companies feel more confident. Indeed, according to the former head of the Dover Port, it would be hard for an organization to be adversely affected without being seriously negligent.   See previous article: 11-09-2019 Brexit. Dover delays myth, food shortages and deaths due to border chaos, soundly dispelled.

Theresa May’s Brexit deal would have removed the UK from many a shortlist when it came to investment and development.  However, a stronger government with a willingness to return the UK to being a country which is competitive, and ready to do business, is already starting to manifest in some of these delayed decisions being made.  The good news for Brits is that it seems to be happening in favour of the UK.  More and more organizations, including those that had publicly stated quite the opposite, see that Britain has got over its post referendum paralysis and is moving towards becoming a more competitive environment in a self governed economy which can only be, far more nimble than those tied to the almost glacial pace of the EU block.

Something likely to accelerate as the UK publishes post Brexit plans for things like customs more widely and formally signs the many trade deals which have been pre agreed and are ready to be signed by both parties. 

Covid-19 may have challenged every western economy but news such as this indicates that Britain is well placed to take advantage of being the worlds fifth largest economy and under self rule once again in December.