The chief executive of Bentley has revealed that a potential no-deal Brexit will hurt the British car manufacturer but won’t kill it.
It has been four and a half years since the UK voted to withdraw from the European Union and on January 1, 2021, the split will be official. If the EU and the UK are unable to agree to a mutually beneficial trade deal, the British economy could be hit hard and the automotive industry will feel the impact.
During a recent interview with Channel 4 News in the UK, Bentley chief executive Adrian Hallmark expressed his concerns about a no-deal Brexit.
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“[A no deal Brexit will be] like jumping off a cliff with a parachute but you’ve not tested it. We’ve done all customer processes, we’ve prepared our suppliers, we’ve got extra storage for components, we’ve got everything ready but we’ve never had to do it when everybody else is doing it,” Hallmark said. “So if we jump and pull, but it doesn’t work because the ships are full, the planes are full, and we can’t get stuff through the UK, it will stop production.”
In recent months, Bentley has been stockpiling parts from suppliers through the European Union in a bid to avoid tariffs that now seem inevitable. Hallmark added the company also has jumbo jets on standby in case British ports grind to a halt in the New Year.
Bentley sells 24 per cent of its British-built cars in the European Union and a 10 per cent tariff will be a blow, albeit not a fatal one. However, Hallmark said that for British car companies which sell a higher proportion of their vehicles to the European Union, the impact will be much worse.