Brexit – one year on

23 August, 2017

Vanda Jones, executive director for BCAS, said: “At BCAS we are actively lobbying against the risk of trade falling off the edge of a cliff at the end of the Brexit process. It is vital that a transitional period is negotiated and clearly communicated as every day that passes wastes time, money and resources with several businesses planning for this worst-case scenario. While large corporations are already spending resource on contingency planning, SMEs may not have the resource to do so.”

BCAS tracks machinery sales, air compressor sales by volume and distribution performance, which allows the Society to track the market on an immediate and long-term basis (see graph).

BCAS comments that, in the short term, there is no doubt that the wider industry took a deep breath with the uncertainty of Brexit as can be seen from the Society’s distribution index; although its long-term view was to continue to invest and place orders for more air to be delivered to UK production plants. BCAS adds that this is a good sign for industry generally as compressed air is a bellwether of how companies view the future.

BCAS makes the point that it is the only UK trade association that represents manufacturers, distributors and end users of compressors, vacuum pumps, pneumatic tools and allied products. This means it reports on and can track the needs of the entire supply chain for compressed air to the UK, Europe and overseas.