ASOS Move to Northern Ireland: A Sign of Things to Come?

By Aodhán Connolly, Director of the Northern Ireland Retail Consortium

Yesterday, ASOS announced its chief executive is leaving the company, news saw its share price tumble by 15% in early trading. But there is another story taking hold at the company, which has widespread implications for the post-Brexit retail climate: ASOS are creating 52 jobs in Northern Ireland by early 2022, and 184 jobs by 2024. This maybe small beer for some, but at a moment when talks are continuing on the Northern Ireland Protocol, this is a confidence boost for the NI economy. It is also a boost for the wider business community who see the real benefits to the NI Protocol as the attraction that it can give foreign direct investors who want to have dual UK and EU market access.

It is not just base level jobs that are on the agenda for ASOS. They plan to recruit across a range of levels and job functions including engineering and data science. In short, there will be a surge in well paid productive jobs based in Northern Ireland. 

Northern Ireland has always had many things pulling investment towards it. Relatively low costs of set up, low costs of living, skilled and willing workforce and a great standard of life. But as good as all that sounds, it is all for nothing if we don’t overcome that which the IMF sees as the biggest push factor away from investment, political instability. There are clear opportunities for Northern Ireland, but only if our politicians create an investment friendly atmosphere by making a stable and durable government.

Aside from Northern Ireland, we are seeing big brands look further afield for subsidiary and even main offices, as rising costs in London and better incentives across the regions in the UK are recognised. But it is not just within the UK that London has competition. In the same week that the ASOS jobs were announced in NI, luxury brand, FarFetch, announced a relocation to Portugal that could be in the thousands of jobs rather than hundreds.

This is something that should make the Government take notice. Leaving the EU has led many in business to re-evaluate everything— from their business model to where they are based. That is usually not a good story for the UK. Maybe it is time for some reflection on not only how we maintain the retailers we have in the UK, but look at how we  encourage more to Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK.