A Brexit Bonanza? Possibly Not

Anyone in North America looking wistfully back toward the “old country” must be wondering how the Brits have managed to make such a mess of things in such a short time, and whether it might really be better to be holed in “fortress America”. The truth of the matter is that we are just as bemused as you are, and, rather more to the point, and speaking as a Brit, we’re wondering how it came about, and what is likely to come next.

In theory, the U.K. store design sector should be rubbing its collective hands. The British pound has been devalued by around 10 percent, meaning that it’s cheaper to buy stuff here, and that includes the products of the store design mob, whose output is highly rated, this side of the water anyway. The U.K. has, to an extent, been a European store design supermarket with retailers from across the continent flying in, plucking an interior solution off the shelf and then returning home and waiting for delivery and, presumably, incremental profits.

When you talk to most U.K. design consultancies, they are quick to point out that their exposure to the U.K. retail business is at something of a historical low, and most of their income is derived from Europe or beyond. Yet even allowing for the fact that the price of a U.K. store design is now lower than it was, will it mean planeloads of retailers heading towards London?

The answer, sadly, is very possibly not. A combination of resentment towards U.K. plc (Inc.), and fear of dealing with damaged goods, may mean that the outcome is a cake that has had the baking powder left out of it and which now feels a little flat. We live in parlous times and the Brexit phenomenon will influence events in unexpected ways for some time to come.  

John Ryan is a journalist covering the retail sector, a role he has fulfilled for more than a decade. As well as being the European Editor of VMSD magazine, he writes for a broad range of publications in the U.K., the U.S. and Germany with a focus on in-store marketing, display and layout, as well as the business of store architecture and design. In a previous life, he was a buyer for C&A, based in London and then Düsseldorf, Germany. He lives and works in London.