A survey of supply chain managers showed that Brexit concerns mean 37% of procurement professionals in the manufacturing sector are looking for UK suppliers.
The survey carried out for the Chartered Institute of Procurement & Supply (CIPS) asked 2,111 supply chain managers from around the world about their views and reactions towards Brexit. The survey included 904 UK businesses with European supply chains and 117 European businesses with UK supply chains.
The survey also showed that 27% of supply chain manages are making efforts to get closer to EU suppliers and 75% said supply chains becoming more expensive, with 25% considering costs of potential tariffs.
A high proportion of manufacturing businesses are looking for UK suppliers, with 32% of UK businesses who work with suppliers on the continent actively looking for alternative suppliers based in the UK as a response to the referendum. The manufacturing sector posted a higher response at 37%.
The longer-term impact is bad news for suppliers to the industry as 43% of respondents said that input costs for manufacturing production would have to be negotiated lower. Around 18% said they would bring some of their operations to the UK but 25% said more of their supply operations would be located outside of the EU.
The report, ‘The Brexit Storm – How procurement and supply chain professionals are tackling the issues’ and be downloaded here
The CIPS reports that due to the level of interest in the survey after its launch a fuller report was produced at a later date with more detail. The results will be announced at the CIPS Conference on 17 October.