EU referendum, brexit and the aftermath

Oh yeah I get the distributor aspect. I was more calling into question how that article stating that saddles are available via a third party makes the whole "Brooks can't sell their saddles to UK customers because they come from Italy" story "fake news".

A UK customer cannot order a UK-made Brooks saddle from Brooks. That is still true right? And pretty ridiculous, hence why it's newsworthy.

It’s only interesting if you think or believe that buying direct from Brooks is the only and preferred way to acquire a Brooks saddle.

That Brooks can tell it’s direct U.K. customers to do one gives an indication of how seriously it takes selling Direct in the U.K; most sales and how they want to sell will be through the distributor/ dealer network.

It’s a pretty odd situation having both direct and distributor led sales - it creates all sorts of weird tensions and issues. Like Brooks not being able to tell Direct customers where to buy and Extra not being able to do the same.

Fwiw I bought my last Brooks off Wiggle as it was much cheaper.

Brooks own site was the only place I could get the Cambium saddle and bar tape in blue. Naturally this was critical to the over all bike look ;)

It’s only interesting if you think or believe that buying direct from Brooks is the only and preferred way to acquire a Brooks saddle.

Disagree. I found it interesting as it's a UK manufacturer who previously sold their products made in the UK, direct to customers in the UK. This can no longer be done as a result of Brexit as previously they would ship their products to Italy to be distributed, in this case, back to the UK.

You can find it interesting or not.

A manufacturer like brooks selling direct to consumer on their website has to maintain their retail price point (you could argue thsi is one reason that they bother to sell direct to consumer).
But market forces online mean that the wiggles, etc will fight it out for sales and their price will always be cheaper (with tiny margins).
Which means brooks probably don’t sell high volume through their website, in the U.K. at least.
So selle italia decide to send all the brooks.co.uk orders from Italy where they have a streamlined online centre to send out small orders accross their other brands.
It’s not cost effective for brooks.co.uk to have a separate and low volume online centre based in the U.K., especially when they probably ship most of the orders to consumers outside the U.K..

It’s not cost effective for brooks.co.uk to have a separate and low volume online centre based in the U.K., especially when they probably ship most of the orders to consumers outside the U.K..

At least it wasn’t when there weren’t tariffs and other hurdles pre-Brexit. I’m guessing Brooks will get creative about fulfilling direct to consumer orders in the UK, like sub-contracting off the fulfilment of their website orders to wiggle under the Brooks brand, lol.

This can no longer be done as a result of Brexit

It can be done - they just don’t want to, right now because they probably won’t make any money and it’s a load of hassle for them. And because Extra are supposed to do it for them, they have zero incentive to jump through the - probably minimal - hoops to do something very few people cared about or needed.

(Also it’s kind of good that a bunch of Saddles aren’t going to do round trips to Italy. Maybe. Not sure if Extra’s stock goes that route. I hope not)

I get the Brexit wot dun it angle but feel it draws attention away from real issues caused by the re-arrangement of our relationship with Europe.

Obvs. I find it interesting too, but I meant actually newsworthy.

I'd bet that the saddles are possibly assembled, but very likely packed, in Italy.

Brooks in the UK will produce either the constituent parts, or completed saddles and then ship them en-masse to Italy. They're then either assembled and packed, or just packed and readied for distribution. Extra-UK's stock will come from Italy, so they can supply UK punters.

I reckon UK punters ordering from the Brooks website were previously supplied from Italy, and that doesn't work anymore due to (wild guess) the VAT thing that's been talked about a lot recently.

Do you still have to pay for Brooks saddles with farthings and thrupenny bits?

Extra-UK's stock will come from Italy, so they can supply UK punters.

Fortunately not! From Extra’s statement:

Furthermore, we can confirm that UK-made Brooks England products are shipped directly from the Brooks England factory in Smethwick to Extra UK’s warehouse, and not via Selle Royal’s HQ in Italy

Contradicts the FT article on this subject in that case.

An FT article on this? Christ.

I’d lean towards believing Extra on this, but Cycling Biz, so anything goes.

An FT article on this? Christ.

Lots of cyclists in the City. They know their target audience.

Not a surprise, just an event: trade in E.U. shares almost completely moved from UK platforms to EU ones today.

Do you still have to pay for Brooks saddles with farthings and thrupenny bits?

Reversing decimalisation begins in April.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FlNOfBlulMs

Been waiting for something to be manufactured and shipped since I ordered it in April.

Finally shipped from Germany on the 27th of December.

Made it to a French FedEx depot on the 31st. Not moved since. Now stuck due to backlog of Brexit regulations etc apparently.

Thanks Boris; Son's crying etc.

I ordered an Xmas present from the UK in November. Turned up yesterday. Post everywhere is a mess.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-55543665

Sainsbury's NI is selling Spar products while new border check processes get sorted.

Mate of mine sent picture of fresh foods aisle in BM bargains in Belfast south: Everything gone.

Brexit dividends...for spar ;)

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/jan/05/mother-fears-son-could-die-as-brexit-stops-medical-cannabis-medicine-supply

Seen a few threads on Twitter discussing the fact that as opposed to massive queues there are currently a massively lower number of lorries at all crossing the channel. Might be a side effect of massive stockpiling in the UK before 31/12 but one to watch.

That's just awful :(

85% less lorries through Dover up to yesterday apparently.

Surely increased processes and general freight confusion - ie people just not shipping to / from UK because of the red tape.

Isn't unaccompanied container freight up though?