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SURVEYS OVER THE past year have shown that although Irish businesses are worried about Brexit – only a small fraction of them have done anything to prepare for the effect it may have.
And that may be mostly related to the uncertainty of Brexit – not even the Irish government knows what it will look like or what exactly they should do about it.
“Businesses have been left to their own devices,” Paul Jacobs says, who’s the founder of Smart Storage, a business that manufactures and installs under stair storage units across the UK and Ireland.
But he’s taken advantage of the situation to explore other markets – and found what seems like a perfect market for his business in the suburbia around Amsterdam.
“Holland has the top 3 highest rate of home-ownership in Europe,” Jacobs tells TheJournal.ie, adding that they also have one of the strongest English-language speaking population and are densely-populated.
He adds that Irish suburban homes are bigger than UK homes, and UK homes are similar to Holland’s – potentially hinting at the demand that would suit his business.
Jacobs says that after the EU referendum result in June last year, he was shocked. In the month previously, he had announced an expansion of one of the company’s manufacturing sites in Carrick-on-Suir and between 60-100 new jobs.
He estimates that around 65% of his business operations are UK-based, so the result would have some sort of effect.
“Nobody regarded the UK as a foreign market – they saw it as an extension of the domestic market,” Jacobs says.
But the vote encouraged him to what he sees as a healthy move for his business: look at markets further afield than their closest neighbours.
That’s a lesson learnt from the recession. Jacobs co-ran a construction business during the boom time, and says they thought about opening a base in London, but didn’t need to because the demand in south Dublin was so high.
You have to be careful with the business – don’t get complacent, comfortable, happy with what you’re doing.
“We didn’t realise that things weren’t going to stay the same – and those are the waves that will rock you.”
He says that the perfect business market should be like a pyramid base: either you have a wide range of products you sell to a very particular area, or a large geographical area where you sell a very specific number of products.
Back in Britain
But they’re not leaving their UK-based business behind either: “We can’t ignore UK market just because Brexit has happened. It’s too big, and there’s a lot of work there.”
Instead of carrying out the expansion of their Irish manufacturing site as announced last year, Jacobs is now considering opening a manufacturing base in the UK instead, and six months ago, he registered a UK company – both in an effort to Brexit-proof his business.
“People hoping Brexit won’t happen,” businessman Paul Jacobs says. “Hope is for mass on Sundays.”
And although the two-year negotiation process causes uncertainty for politicians and global markets, it gives businesses time to research the market and make decisions for the future, whatever kind of Brexit we might get.
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Purchased a new house last year and had the ‘Smart storage’ system installed. (The 3-Drawer version). Met Paul Jacobs at the ‘Ideal homes exhibition’ last spring and arranged installation. Excellent system, no more clutter in the hallway which was prevalent in my previous home.
Expensive for what is essentially mdf but it makes a huge difference to the tidiness of my home. The guy who installed it was perhaps one of the best tradesman I’ve seen at work in that he was so precise and exact in how he constructed the drawers. (Eastern European guy, who is also a qualified cabinet maker). 10 out of 10 from me.
The good news is only 11% of our exports in 2016 went to the UK. Even in areas like beef exports we are diversifying, and now we have trade deals with the US and Japan.
We need to get to the point where the UK could disappear off the face of the planet and it wouldn’t affect us much. We’re almost there.
@Fred Jensen: The figure is 16-17% of exports, and 30% of all employment in Ireland is in sectors exporting to the UK.
Oh, and that 16-17% is still worth over €13,000,000,000 to our economy.
@The Risen:
No you’re a little out of date, it was 16% now it’s 11%.
The other 89% is worth over €100,000,000,000 to our economy, so there you go.
Meryl Lynch has just said EU hasn’t a hope on staying together meanwhile the Irish swap “mass on Sundays” for total belief in Brussels. We’re still in denial “soft landing mode”
@Sean Hyland: what a load of boll ox!
@Sean Hyland: Merly lynch are what I would describe a vested interest group.
Ignore them
Zzzzzzzzzzz.
@Conor Byrne: you may not care but this topic is literally going to have at least a minor impact on the everyday life of most of the country. Ignore all u want.
@Conor Byrne: I know. People that work hard and try to grow a business without being a burden on society are so zzzzzzz
@Kevin O’ Brien: the topic of under stairs storage?
@Conor Byrne: theres a lot more bigger business that are saying it wont happen.
@Conor Byrne: you may have a jet set lifestyle Conor, but under stairs storage is an honest business, you being bored by a story you opened tells us much more about how boring you are than this business.
@Joseph Bloggs: BURDEN on a society . get rid of full time state jobs..
Is this an advertisement dressed up as a story?
Who’s = who is.
Whose. Seriously! Basic grammar. #proofread
@Felicity Hensen: what weed are you on?
@Michael Heery: ? She’s right.
Dam he stole my idea!
I utilized my under stairs with a large drawer like this over a decade ago and said to the missus that this would be a great business idea… alas I missed my chance and struggle on with my fellow working class comrades daily.
Dutch love organised storage
have your say