The negative impact of Brexit on UK small firms is illustrated by the experience of My Nametags, which makes iron-on and sticker name tags for labelling children’s clothes and equipment.

Founded by Lars B. Andersen, customers are mostly parents who buy from one of the firm’s websites, and My Nametags sells name labels to about 140 countries around the world.

My Nametags is based in London, and since Brexit Dublin has become the company’s EU hub.

“Brexit has had no impact on serving customers outside of the EU, but for all EU orders we are now channelling them through our Irish operations,” said Andersen. “All our EU orders are produced in the UK and shipped through Ireland. All our EU ecommerce websites are now run from Ireland too.”

My Nametags has partnered with An Post for the logistics.

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According to Andersen: “We ship orders in bulk to An Post, and the orders are then sent to customers around Ireland and around the EU with minimal delay. This relationship was an important part in deciding to ramp up our Irish operations rather than looking at another EU country.

“We looked at Belgium as a possible hub, but decided on growing Ireland instead. This was a combination of factors. We already had a presence in Ireland, the An Post setup worked well, and the simplicity of doing business in Ireland is a consideration too. Also, Ireland is a more important market for us than Belgium and Benelux.”

Andersen says that My Nametags has been growing our sales in the EU and outside the EU over the last few years, but profitability has seen impacted due to the additional costs of setting up a new way of getting our products to our customers.

“We are now in a new stable position and look forward to the future in a positive way,” he added.

“There needs to be clear and stable long-term rules for trade between the UK and the EU. At the moment there is still too much uncertainty and unclarity on what documents are needed, and this hampers trade.”