Just after the results of the EU Referendum were known on Friday 24th June, I posed a question to the fenestration industry in this country: How has your business performed since the Brexit EU Referendum result?
Much was made of the possible immediate effects on the UK economy if we were to vote to leave. And indeed we saw big swings in currency and stock markets here, in Europe and around the world. But the dust is now settling. Stock markets have rallied to record highs. Sterling is stable although still around 8-9 cents lower against the dollar.
There have been some immediate industry impacts too. Some manufacturers have been very quick to pass on fairly significant price increases, whereas some have held off and absorbed them, in the hope others would follow in an attempt to keep home owners spending on home improvement products.
There is now doubt that businesses in our industry will be affected in one way or another after this vote. So I wanted to conduct a poll asking the industry how their businesses have performed in the weeks since the Brexit vote. The results are interesting and are as follows:
This is the question with their full answers, along with the percentage and number of votes cast for each answer:
How has your business performed since the Brexit EU Referendum result?
Excellent – leads and sales are still strong and we’re looking at good growth for this year
Percentage of vote/votes cast: 21.8% / 44
Relatively well – leads and sales are still good, there’s been a slight dip but nothing to derail a good overall year
Percentage of vote/votes cast: 18.3% / 37
About the same – leads and sales are where they were before the vote, no swings one way or the other
Percentage of vote/votes cast: 30.7% / 62
Poorly – there has been a noticeable drop in leads and sales and could impact our overall yearly performance
Percentage of vote/votes cast: 20.3% / 41
Terrible – the Brexit result has derailed things seriously with leads and sales really falling off
Percentage of vote/votes cast: 8.9% / 18
Analysis
I think it is fair to say that on the surface of it, it is a very mixed bag of results. No swing one way or the other towards a single answer. The answer “about the same” did end up being the most voted option, but not by a great margin.
There was no landslide towards the negative end of the poll, an outcome many had predicted pre-referendum. Although it cannot be ignored that 41 people had said their company had performed poorly since the Brexit result, and 18 said their company had done terribly.
On the flip side of the coin, 44 people said their businesses had performed excellently since the Brexit result, and a further 37 said theirs were doing relatively well. This was perhaps a little higher than I had personally expected. My own predictions at the time of setting up this poll was that the middle ground would come out on top, with many more people voting to say that nothing much had changed.
Search for Brexit expertise
In times like this we often to turn experts and organizations for some kind of guidance or prediction so we can plan ahead for our own businesses. So lets use the IMF as an example. Pre-referendum they warned that a just a vote to leave the EU alone would send the UK into a recession. Not a bad one, but a recession nonetheless. Yet, as I am writing this, I have just seen a report in which they state that growth this year in the UK is estimated to be 1.7% and 1.3% next year. Far off from their gloomy pre-ref predictions.
Now the IMF don’t always land their targets, in fact rarely do any economists or think-tanks. But this is way off from what they thought might happen should we vote to leave, and it perhaps a sign of the UK’s strength and resilience.
And this perhaps reflects in the poll results above. This is not a dramatic move to the downside. On the most part it is shows a steady ship, with most voters reporting no change, or in fact a year that continues to grown and improve on the year previous. There will always be companies who will come out on the wrong side of a momentous decision such as the EU referendum. But if anything this is the perfect time to seek out the new opportunities that will inevitably show up along the way. Companies, whether they are doing well or not, should be making the most of them.
Thanks to all those who took part in this latest DGB poll, and please feel free to expand the conversation via the comments section below.
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