Supply chain hit by post-Brexit border delays

Border delays and Brexit red tape are hitting the industry, with Waterstones suspending European deliveries and Blackwell's facing issues with goods coming into the UK.

Waterstones has paused making deliveries to the continent and customers making orders through its website are unable to choose a delivery to European countries. The company has been affected by its European delivery partner Royal Mail suspending all deliveries to mainland Europe, Canada and Turkey on 21st December.

C.o.o. Kate Skipper said: "We hope Waterstones.com deliveries for European customers will be back up and running shortly. European deliveries were unfortunately impacted as service could not be guaranteed to customers due to the late notice of the publication of the details surrounding the Brexit deal, combined with the pre-Christmas border chaos."

Problems are also affecting smaller retailers, with Goldsboro Books m.d. David Headley branding the current situation “a shambles”. He said: “There is no clarity whatsoever with sending books to the EU. There are reams of pages about exporting but I can’t find out what taxes are due, by who, and when those taxes need to be collected.”

However, Kieron Smith, digital director for Blackwell's, said his firm was not experiencing too much difficulty. He said: “We're very much focused on export as a business anyway, so we certainly needed to get it right. Despite the fact it was ever-shifting sands up until the very last minute, we feel we're in a pretty good place. We're still supplying European countries, I think it's about a two-day additional delay on what we would normally have quoted.”

Smith added: “It's not a guaranteed delay, but certainly things are a little bit slower moving through, as customs are doing more checks. People are getting used to new manifests and things like that. It's not so much the paperwork that is a problem—it's new for everybody.”

Blackwell's has changed some of its routes into Europe and is using the Netherlands as an entry point more, alongside flying directly into other areas and then injecting goods into the local postal service. It is also benefiting from focusing on print books alone rather than things like jigsaw puzzles and physical audiobooks, which lead to regulatory complications.

However, Smith said the company had more issues with getting goods into the UK, perhaps because of delays with customs clearance. He said: “We've got some big European wholesalers we are currently not able to buy from because they haven't sorted out how to get it into the UK. That's been more problematic for us.”

Booksellers Association m.d. Meryl Halls said Brexit was an "enormous issue", in particular for Irish booksellers, and with many UK retailers having problems with the new regulations.

She said: "The Booksellers Association, Bookselling Ireland and Irish bookshops and wholesalers have been working with UK publishers and distributors since September to ensure that the supply chain remains as stable as possible post-Brexit, with most major distributors agreeing DDP Incoterms [where the seller assumes responsibility, risk, and costs associated with transporting goods] for Ireland’s booksellers ahead of the year’s end. Unfortunately, since 31st December these efforts have been impacted by confusion and uncertainty, with reports of lorries being turned away at ports due to administrative issues and DPD temporarily suspending operations.

“We are also seeing the impact which Brexit is having on bookshops in the UK, as British booksellers who regularly sell to readers in the EU are having to grapple with unclear regulations and confusing red tape in order to reach their customers.

“The Government’s alarming lack of guidance has created a situation where booksellers and suppliers in the UK and Ireland have been left to fend for themselves. We are working hard with British publishers to try and mitigate the effect Brexit is having on the supply chain and bookshops, but urge the Government to provide clearer advice for businesses and to recognise the damaging effect which the current situation is having on the book community in both countries.”

Following on from shipping delays and freight-rate hikes previously reported, Publiship, which provides services to more than 200 publishers, said the logistics industry importing books is "still in chaos".

Brexit has provoked more instances of problems with incorrect documentation and has led to truck queues building, according to Dave Thompson, the company's group sales and development director, who said that at present "trucks are not coming to the UK in anything like the numbers we used to see". As of last Friday (8th January), they had only reached 40% of normal volume, he said, while freight rates for trucks coming into the UK were four times higher than the figure that was being paid at the start of December. "Most EU drivers don’t want to come here," he said.

Meanwhile, there are said to be larger issues with cargo coming from Asia: costs of shipping to the UK are estimated to have tripled, while shipping line reliability has dwindled to 50%.

"There is a shortage of containers, and bookings made with shipping lines can sit unconfirmed for weeks," said Thompson. "For the most part, we are getting our cargo away from Hong Kong and Southern China—for a price—but it’s more difficult from elsewhere, particularly Thailand and Malaysia. I would estimate that the door-to-door cost for most shipments to the UK has at least trebled.

"Congestion at UK ports has led to long delays, as vessels either wait to get a berth, or worse, discharge their cargo on the continent for it to come back to the UK at a later date. We have had some containers delayed by almost a month because of this."

Polly Powell, group c.e.o. of Quarto, and Russell Evans, commercial director at Simon & Schuster UK, confirmed the issues with the supply chain. Powell said she was optimistic the situation will improve, however, and Evans noted in spite of the delays and rising costs-around which there has been much forward-planning-it was encouraging deliveries are still coming through to the UK.

"The supply chain is experiencing some difficulties, which we predict will ease over the next few months," Powell said. "The main issue is with the huge increase in global freight movement before Christmas, which has meant that all the ships and containers are in the wrong place. Those that are in the right place can charge inflated fees. Recently, there was a case of a ship in such a hurry that it was unable to offload in the UK, and offloaded in Tangiers instead. But everything will get back to normal, once the ships are in the right place."

Evans said: "The issues we’re all currently dealing with are bringing about many challenges to work through. This has been ongoing for a while so a lot of planning with the team has been put into place. Yes, we still have delays and yes, freight is costing more, but we are seeing deliveries come through to the UK, which is reassuring and encouraging.

"The position changes daily and all of which is out of our control, but we are doing everything we can. We continue to work with our freight forwarder to keep on top of things and we’re working together with our printers and distribution centre to keep everything going - even with the Covid related restrictions they have all been excellent."

Thompson said the latest lockdown is also making deliveries within the UK harder. "Warehouses are tightening up on working practices, and fewer delivery slots are available in some places, particularly where confirmed Covid cases are identified and other staff have to isolate," he said. "This is across the supply chain, and the effects are felt even when publishing distribution centres are working normally."