Fashion Roundtable Minutes – Brexit and the Fashion Industry Roundtable 17th January 2018
Date - Wednesday 17th January
Time: 3.30pm – 6.00pm
Location: Withers LLP
16 Old Bailey
London
EC4M 7EG.
Attendees:
From Fashion Roundtable: Tamara Cincik, CEO and Founder, who Chaired the talk. Bev Malik our Retail Expert, Eszter Kantor our EU Expert, Rehana Ameer our Adviser and Anna Fitzpatrick our Education and Sustainability Expert.
From Government Departments: we had several civil servants from across DCMS, BEIS and DIT in attendance, including sector, retail and creative industries leads.
From the fashion industry: we had over 70 attendees, including Tom Chapman from Matches, Nick Vinson of Vinson and Co, Oriole Cullen from the V&A, Zowie Broach Head of Fashion at the RCA, Frances Card, Emma Hart from Push PR, Maria Lamos from Rainbowwave, Robert Forrest, Orsola De Castro from Fashion Revolution, Princess Julia and numerous stakeholders from across retail, design, online, legal, taxation, PR, curation and education.
Chair: Tamara Cincik CEO and Founder of Fashion Roundtable
Introduction: Greeting and thanks to speakers and guests.
Intro to Jack Powell, Policy and Public Affairs Manager at the Creative Industries Federation (CIF). A background on the organisation supporting all the creative industries
Social Media: notice by Tamara on their recent Instagram launch.
Advocate for all the Creative Industries.
Note to the audience: fashion is the most profitable of all of the creative industries.
Speaker 1 Jack Powell Policy and Public Affairs manager, Creative Industries Federation (CIF).
https://www.creativeindustriesfederation.com/
Introduction to the kind of industries that are part of CIF.
Policy and Management.
Link to their Global Talent Report here: http://bit.ly/2zjOv14
Manages all parts of the Creative Industries (CIs)
Independent from the Government.
Voice; make some headway
4x faster job creation than other industries.
Conditions put into place to allow industry to grow
Survey across CIs and what vote trends were
96 % in favour of Remain
Pull together evidence on the key concerns in the sector
We hosted 11 cross creative meetings
Negotiations and issues addressed in meetings
Brexit report available in the CIF web page
Go through all departments of Government.
EU - expressing our concern
Round of talent & skills
Free trade: stopping could become an issue
FUNDING: from EU (balance growth)
Physical Infrastructures
Finance initiatives Creative Europe Initiative : Foster exchange partnership
How to replicate effects post Brexit- discussion.
EU regulation : Broadcasting Only 50% are broadcasting domestically: EU - how to address this problem
10% of export is fashion, 42 goes to EU - how to secure export goes well
Deeper Research for CIF
Funding and Trading Investment Research
Evidence from 300 companies
Map how we work with international talent
How internationals bring a dynamic to the workforce
Immigration 6.7 pc of the workers come from other countries, 6pc. EU
Subsectors of the CIs: Combination of technical and creative skills
Unique ways of work
Freelancers: large amount, unlike other industries, important to create policy to allow immigration to function in or favour
Best people to uphold reputation: Tourism, buys from around the world
How int workers expand the workforce of the CI.
Advertising: Competing with other companies for international deals.
Broadcasting: Build Audience
Skills gap in workforce in the UK
95 pc of the Creative Industries only allow for a small amount of people to work with them
Demand of CIs through highly specialised craftspeople.
Competing in a global market: Important for the gov to understand.
Vote- reputation created by the Brexit vote demonstrates that we are not a welcoming place to work any more: people don't want to work here anymore.
Essential to change in order to show freedom of passage for work, both short and Long term. This is key.
Any change to immigration system. VISA system: not designed for a 21st century service-based market system
Recommendations:
EU SYSTEM
Open a system of movement (free) plus control for Government's sake
Visa free travel EU-UK
Short term freedom of movement
Mobility scheme to allow talent to add value to the creative sector
Non-EU system: freelance visa launch
Has to be sponsored by an employer- this doesn't work i.e. freelancer scheme
Not enough people for what creative industries real term needs are: in the low 100s currently.
Business plan can be checked by the UK Government.
Tamara: 'Would you see this as similar to the US's 01 VISA?'
Jack: Not entirely, it needs to be more freed-up demonstrate evidence of work and net positive financially for the country.
Full time employees: 22 hours minimum
Up to 5000 to bring people over for 5 years
Domestic skills training programme: no evidence of money being used
Government tried to make things easier for people to tour internationally
Digital system would be far more practical than handing a passport
Rough idea of CIF's work
Employer Representative work
Advise on EU immigration post BREXIT: more security for EU nationals to the UK
Gov. doubled the exceptional talent visa (200, not enough)
Try to open this up to as many people as possible.
Look at everything we need to underpin train: IP regulations, how to keep up to speed with those in the EU
Support this on twitter and Instagram #
Brexit conference: at the National Gallery CIB leaders in the EU: how to create a deal with the trade and how this can be done
Speaker 2 - Sophie Leach: Assistant General Secretary at NSEAD and Editor of AD Magazine
http://www.nsead.org/home/index.aspx
Sophie's Presentation: http://www.nsead.org/Downloads/fashion_RT_Policies_results_and%20trends_NSEAD.pdf
Introduction by Tamara: Why educators as a part of Brexit roundtable: authentic conversation as to what is going on with the talent pool in the UK. Westminster: illogical that we have a STEM system is put in place. Especially with Brexit on the horizon when the push is for domicile talent uptake. We are quickly losing numbers in art and design.
Relaying some of the areas that we have worked on, issues with Education pipeline.
What is happening in the UK.
NSEAD: 130 years old. Change. Art school principals. Only one woman. Changed now. Core values the same; advocate, promote for the art design and craft ed.
Policy changes in our subject
Recommendations for change
Commission of large report in February last year
How has Government policy impacted art and ed. in the past 4 hears.
44 pages long. Learning opportunities in Art, craft and design have reduced exponentially.
Looked at primary education .
44% there has been a reduction in provision.
38 % reduction in art, crafts and design education.
84 % reduction in provision in the 2 months before SATs.
53% there has been a fall in the level of attainment in the success joining secondary school
Less provision in primary school standards.
Year 7 less provision at key stage 3.
Arts carrousel : You now are only able to do it one hour a term at YR 8, same as music and drama
4 years ago: 1 hour a week.
Some students will only have done 1 hour a week in 2 yrs
Research into private schools: big sector difference: 44% decline in State schools, versus 21% decline in private schools.
Tamara: Notes to add here: 75% of sec. schools becoming academies. Whereas private schools are only 8%, meaning we have an almost half decline in uptake in 92% of our schools.
Reduction in time. Ebacc has impacted provision
Ebacc is not a certificate : It is what the Government calls core academic it is not a qualification. A performance measure. Nothing is given to a student. Can be up to 8 options. leaves very little opt for artistic subjects.
Asked in survey that courses are closing in possible sixteen 16 routes. many vocational, fashion, art and design.
Impact can be seen in GCSES: Lowest level of GCSE Art candidates since 2000. Lowest in the century. Fallen for the last two years. GCSEs were so few in 2016 the prediction is that they're going to go down further.
A-levels have flatlined. AS levels are far below average. No up to date info in BTECs.
They let us know the decrease 70% in the subject
Concerns in the gender divide.
The Government is pushing for STEM and it's missing the arts. No better gender divide. Issues with inclusion, worse within seventeen years
June: 16 % decline for UK applicants. Compared to 4% for other subjects.
Ebacc affecting the industry
Report Recommendations:
CIs and the CIF should champion the subject at the highest level possible.
Make the subject as relevant and high level as possible
Working with UAL for a campaign to explain to parents and students to understand the importance of art subject
How this impacts the Government decline inferring the career limitations of art and design subjects. DFE to work with DCMS and BEIS. They need to start working. It should help grow talent
OFSTED: Inspection frame that looks at the arts. We want schools to ensure all young people regardless of the type of institution they're in the importance of culture and cultural activities to their education.
NSEAD Manifesto published last year
10 proposals for world class design, arts and crafts education, what we want to advocate:
People to know it's vital to society and individual.
High quality subject specific training. ATM too generic. Won't be as relevant as the actual experience in the industry. High quality teacher and education partnerships
Ebacc is corrosive. f it has to exist, it should have the arts in it. Fewer and fewer males are taking up this subject. We need more champions for the ACD subjects.
Conclusion: All sorts of resources for governments, civil, for meetings with departments. Visit the webpage and we will help you write to your local MP. We want to help you
Maria Lemos, CEO of Rainbowwave, Q: as a mother of three, compared to my own education in Greece, the UK teaching system is very pro - arts, albeit my children were privately educated. There is a notion that art doesn't give job/entry to university There is a lot of opportunity, far superior to many other cultures. Amazing growth very hard for kids who study arts to get jobs, if there is a way to make it more appealing to them will help increase intake.
Tamara: digital will be using even more creative talents.
Jack Powell: people at school age and teachers don't see the jobs available within the creative industries. Creative Industries Deal: to help promote.
No understanding at school, but also families. Eg this girl can campaign, produce, be a lawyer, or agent, etc: all these behind the scenes works the could demonstrate how much work there is put into the industry.
Jack Kavet Creative Sector Lead at DCMS (https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/department-for-digital-culture-media-sport) : It can't just be the Government it has to be the industry.
Audience response: DFE has to have an impact. we have to have STEAM. Without a good curriculum and without a minister that gives value of teachers, it is difficult
Tamara: it is a perception issue. We won't have good designers, or such busy and globally recognised museums, what I call the Downton Abbey model. It will only be for the elite.
Speaker 3 - Paula Graham Policy and External Relations Manager at CHEAD (Council for Higher Education in Art)
http://www.policyconnect.org.uk/sites/site_pc/files/report/999/fieldreportdownload/creativeheandindustriesreport.pdf
http://chead.ac.uk/cheadapdig-creative-he-brexit-manifesto-launch/
Moving from one sector to the other: look at the sector more holistically. Moving fine art from the sector will have a high impact in tech. Misconception that if fine art died tomorrow no one would care. V. interconnected with other industries. Ext. imp. to look at the role of HE and the higher role HE presents in the arts industry.
Key challenges: CHEAD study of where creative graduates go: C. Grads. C futures.
Been updated since 2010. Recent BREXIT manifesto
Report on fashion: how HE is important for this.
HE has become central to this: people turning to design to supplement the market. This is the reason why HE is becoming part of the driving movement in this economic global growth.
India and China are starting to move beyond tech towards creativity
Creative Ed. becoming driving forces to back up this.
Migration figures stands up to national figures. 76% of the UK pop ok with International students not being on the migration figures.
For HE, international students are key
CHEAD key challenges BREXODUS: UK is an English-speaking gateway into the EU. We can cherry pick staff, and said staff what to leave. Staff keeps leaving for EU countries. Creative researchers don't feel secure. Increased resignations from EU Staff. EU research frameworks will impact the industry negatively. Role of university work: £5 million research budget
In terms of how plugged in the UK is in the academic research in the CREATIVE .
Losing the cutting edge in research rep.
Fashion in HE:
KEF- work with Catapult. Chat with HE leaders. STEM focus. Money allocated to the industry under a STEM model. HRC knowledge exchange observatory. Go for NESTA or KCL.
Reduction in match funding for the creative industry.
Future isn't looking fantastic. Fashion Industry facing increasing global challenge. Solution: innovate. HE: allows for innovation to happen; Innovation needs : diversity and investment. We need a strong research culture. In the 70's we got movements ie punk that would go into art schools and seep onto the mainstream and used to work very well for the UK as it made a lot of money.
Fashion should be doing a lot more work with research and innovation, which will allow fashion to access the money which will help allow the industry to become cooler than ever.
Other issue: Not enough entrepreneurial training in universities. UAL project. Arts Union England. Difficult to fund these projects as there is o funding.
Variable. All done with University funding.
Less funding from Universities, as these gaps will be harder to fill without funding coming from outside.
SET university fees: there will be no more
Government is considering creative subjects as technical only; to fill the skills gaps in critical skills.
They want T-levels. Technical or higher level skills? Don't murder universities. People are not thinking this through. Creatives are being a lot more paid than other subjects. Good critical thinking. Solution finding aught in design and art subjects. This is not being factored into anything.
Portfolio Career: we can't track people. We can't track who got a job by word of mouth. Conversation with universities not v fruitful. Machine data and big data. Plus tax data. We appear to be a waste of space/ Fees in the basis of future salaries. Most expensive courses are creative. Cross funding is becoming reduced due to fee alteration. Struggling to get Government or public the role they play.
Universities drive regional creative clusters. CIs and Universities main employers.
If Creative universities are taken from the city centres there will be a big impact in the appearance of city centres and the amount of economic impact universities bring into regions. Lots of galleries, museums being supported by universities. Teachers are artists in universities.
Any gaming lab: Fine arts students.
Universities are driving regional. Lose creative funding, nothing will replace what the EU is bringing financially into UK Ed.
Look at Coventry, Bath and Sheffield as Case studies. Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs)
Skills pipeline: big issue. losing input.
Situation will get worse very quickly. Russell group has no (v little) arts provision.
Strong message from employers.
Creative Ed. Children with impairments do a lot better in creative industries. Knocking out talent at the very base, due to struggles with other subjects.
Restricting mobility for those with educative impairments, eg dyslexia.
Raise educational profile in fashion careers.
work to improve stats.
Support creative force that is already here.
home fees for students from 2019
We lost City of Culture because of Brexit.
We need the frameworks and to be able to collaborate. India is threatening to deny our qualifications. Run through the Bologna process. Aligns European universities. Enhance role of creative university in enhancing the regional profile/
Until now and Tamara launching Fashion Roundtable, Fashion isn't engaging in the conversation.
T: Can I introduce from the audience, Anna Fitzpatrick, our Sustainability Expert, who works at CSF, part of LCF and Orsola De Castro from Fashion Revolution.
From the Brexit talks we need to address regional imbalances, which were a driving force for many of the voters and we need to work to support fashion into regional creative clusters.
Regional balance: crucial to provision of talent.
Paula: losing diversity; turning into elite only. Diversity drives innovation. Reducing div. in HE
T: Frederica Boateng from LCF has interesting stats on this, which she can share with you after.
Qs:
Phyllis Walters: Anyone know about Creative Skill set. Important that they are brought into this.
Fashion degree courses: 11 - additional qualification- lots of industry support
Courtauld Institute Representative: We study fashion history and art history. Historical fashion should be part of the fashion industry.
Eszter Kantor, EU Expert at Fashion Roundtable: Due to the longer term nature of research, funding has to be cut in 2019 because there will be an external EU country. Government stepped in.
Paula: we need to know we are going to continue.
Would the Fashion Roundtable be able to go into schools? Mentor?
Tamara: I am mentoring in my own time, this is something we are keen to add to our work as we grow.
Zowie Broach: Head of Fashion at RCA: Creatives would go their local schools. We are not talking about what we are good at.
The CI didn't do enough to promote the success stories in the Creative Industries. Teach curiosity. Have role models. Manchester examples. Societal problem. Cleverly PRed. Consistent, long-term plans. Education is being talked about in an old-fashioned way. Looking backwards in an old-fashioned system. Designers have the worst business systems in the world.
Important to identify issues in this where curiosity starts?
Speaker 4 - Bev Malik, Fashion Roundtable's Retail Expert
https://www.fashionroundtable.co.uk/about/
Retail Environment:
Shifts are occurring in the retail and merchandising culture.
Different scale and impact in different parts of the industry.
Single market with Europe affects each part of this industry.
We as an industry have not done enough to push for the impact Brexit would have in the industry.
Consider other policy areas.
Hindrances and opportunities:
Headquartering business: such as Matches, Farfetch;
Very easy for these brands to jump over the pond.
Product:
developed, handled and distributed into the EU
£26 billion contribution to the UK economy (note from Tamara, it is over £28bn in current figures)
Discussion of the multilayered supply chain from design to retail. E.G. A young designer, develops blouse. Lithuanian Pattern designer. manufactured in Portugal. Photographed in London. Wholesaled into int. buyers in France (Paris).
Example of the many journeys a product will have.
HR and materials: the fewer barriers to this process, the better. Critical that product is well priced and economically sourced.
Product cycle backwards: Stocking from EU : will throw out margins for retail in the UK.
Ecommerce: Matches and Farfetch are the unicorns, global leaders with international recognition.
Core Market basis destroys the appetite for young and emerging designers to move forward
We chase a tourist economy that is unstable and relies on the weak£.
Online has boomed within the UK.
Fashion embracing e-commerce.
Brick and Mortar- chasing a different type of client.
No ability to ship out products as fast as Amazon.
E commerce shifts facing the industry as a whole: Undersell over 5 collections a year.
Financial crisis: make due amend rather than ongoing into impulsive spending.
Bumper sales: Decreasing the value of products- de value fashion and how it merchandises.
They feel like they can buy the same goods at reduced prices
We must stop reducing prices, look at Alaia, where products always remain at the same price. Mark down frenzy is really making everyone's head spin
Brexit is making the fashion industry more vulnerable.
Bold trading nation: India, China- not considering the craftsmanship and pool of talent available in all other countries. Decreasing the luxury side of the industry.
Overwhelming fear to not have enough money, support or visibility. How to diversify the retail industry. The return of small fashion industries, such as young Vivienne Westwood and others that sold their own clothes in the streets.
This culture should be a priority. Grants, bursaries should be provided.
Luxury Fashion in the UK. Pioneering International Creative retailing.
Policies Freedom of movement re invigorate our brick and mortar culture businesses are 75% of the fashion economy.
Stop separating retailing and fashion.
Create manifesto for Fashion and Brexit.
Tamara: Fashion Roundtable are beginning the conversation and manifesto and how our high streets are looking.
Qs:
Caroline Burstein, former Creative Director of Browns and CEO of Browns Brides: Problems are huge. They often have nothing to do with Brexit and why the UK's problem with the way our arts have been treated even without Brexit.
People involved in the industries do push the boundaries, and it has been smothered. Bring these voices. Really need to be shouted out. Our position in government is very important.
Tamara: invites Caroline to event on the 24th at HOC. In December, the House of Lords mentioned music more times than fashion, which makes over £24bn more than the music industry for the UK. Profit margins are being hit. All of these conversations must be validated by other networks. Only by growing out message will we become an entity in the room. This is why this is an all-inclusive organisation.
Caroline: it starts from schools.
Paula: Lack of diversity discussion on what is Britain and why talking about what kind of work goes into the cis. Considering that the CIs are not quite as inclusive as they could be. People feel positively excluded.
Speaker 5 - Eszter Kantor, Fashion Roundtable's EU Expert
https://www.fashionroundtable.co.uk/about/
Traders must familiarise themselves with the EU`s combined nomenclature; it is used to classify most goods when they are declared to customs in the EU. It includes the rate of customs good and has an explanatory note that gives a description of the goods. UK companies will become importers and the price of imported goods will increase with the tariff rate plus the VAT, which is calculated on the duty-inclusive value of the imports.
Authorised Economic Operator (AEO) status - attaining this status can be very helpful for companies (both for UK companies exporting to the EU as well their EU counterparts wishing to export to the UK) as it provides access to custom simplification procedures and ensures less customs control (opening of containers etc.) which can make the whole transit procedure faster. This will come in handy at a time when custom services will likely to be overwhelmed.
Additionally the EU operates a couple of very useful online tools, which would hopefully adopted and copied by the UK authorities: the first one is the binding tariff information (BTI). When exporters are not sure which product category or customs code their goods fall into they can consult BTI and do two things: either ask through the BTI website customs authorities to confirm the right product category and tariff rate or search the BTI database for previous decision on goods similar to theirs. A BTI decision is, as its name suggests , binding for both the exporter and the authorities for a period of three years. That means that once customs authorities grant a product classification number, exporters must use that.
The other is TARIC, the integrated Tariff of the European Union, is a multilingual database in which are integrated all measures relating to EU customs tariff, commercial and agricultural legislation. It includes the codes of the products, their tariffs, any other levy attached, restrictions etc. It gives all economic operators a clear view of all measures to be undertaken when importing into the EU or exporting goods from the EU.
It is essential that companies know their own supply chain so that they can see what percentage of their raw materials or product parts come from the EU (these will be imports from 2019 April) or are sold to the EU. This will help identify the foreseeable amount of cost increase and give them time to formulate a business strategy.
When customs services are under pressure the problem of counterfeit goods is almost always highlighted. With the sudden increase of importers a higher number of counterfeit goods may slip through custom control. The industry needs to work together with authorities in the UK, in Ireland as well as in the EU to making sure these criminal networks cannot infiltrate the market. With an open border in NI and an overwhelmed UK customs, the transportation of illicit items can become easier. Creative industries need to work together to spot and report counterfeit goods on the market.
Questions arise regarding Chinese imports and whether or not the UK will adopt the EU`s new antidumping legislation or provide a more open access to Chinese imports.
Questions about what was classified as a Third World Country.
1: EU
2:EEA
3: NON EU
Turkey have a special deal, zero tax, sometimes. You may become worse off than Turkey
Broken down by materiality, need certificate, need a lot of admin.
Deal in Switzerland makes transporting things into the country.
Breakup of fashion in UK very profitable for the other European countries.
Q: Parallels between other industries: car industries
Lobbying for core materials
Airbus will be lobbying very hard for a special sector in the transition time.
Europe
Department stores will be more expensive, and less appealing.
Still competitive, but becoming more expensive.
Counterfeit is an issue for the industry. Not a petty criminal industry. customs operations under pressure will often allow counterfeit items to slip into the country.
Irish authorities will have to join the debate as it will become an issue
CHINA: Interesting market for the UK
EU: Anti dumping legislation
Dumping: Bring in products under the market price.
How they bring in Cheap products.
Complain to local industry authorities. Extra Duty. US: 200% fee for dumping.
EU legislation v tough.
If open to China, there will be looser policies and Chinese materials will flood the market.
EU Elections, there may be alterations to the treaty. Closer between a few country, looser integration for others.
2023-24 trade agreements may give back Britain the loss of freedom.
Q: How everything is very fluid, number of over the pond journeys- ash cloud a map of all the planes over Europe
Create a pattern of how many movements that the making of a product integrates.
Small companies are all fantastically educated.
Sending products into Switzerland is a nightmare for small companies. They won't manage to do it. Car industries. Take the idea of the products. There isn't a single product that was produced in the UK that hasn't crossed borders.
We are destroying education, etc.
Reciprocal Visa requirement. Avoid this situation. America hasn't created a requirement for this.
N.B. A letter on these specifics in further detail and some potential actions, is being sent out this week.
Speaker 6 - Dan Farraway, Analyst at Assay Advisory
https://assayadvisory.com/
Presentation: https://ukc-powerpoint.officeapps.live.com/p/pdfhandler.ashx?PV=0&Pid=WOPIsrc%3Dhttps%253A%252F%252Foutlook%252Eoffice%252Ecom%252Fowa%252F02053d0c%252Df9b2%252D4401%252D9521%252De0f50ea3517c%2540fashionroundtable%252Eco%252Euk%252Fwopi%252Ffiles%252FAAMkADAyMDUzZDBjLWY5YjItNDQwMS05NTIxLWUwZjUwZWEzNTE3YwBGAAAAAABOcWRgP3vmTKXDj%252DFqhKSJBwCi22ePpFfLRIFvMQrc7owuAAAAAAEJAACi22ePpFfLRIFvMQrc7owuAABwtSgPAAABEgAQAMdjNqhygopKqeq%252DsJM2jm4%253D%255FnAUs435i1QgBAQAAAA%253D%253D%26access%5Ftoken%3DeyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJSUzI1NiIsIng1dCI6ImVuaDlCSnJWUFU1aWpWMXFqWmpWLWZMMmJjbyJ9%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%252EhpKcOiGhdAwh1o%255FG7FZkn8tDZDtgB%252DUE6%252DSoFra7lUaeOyBobfQkHBJHHcPoB1uXDxQ2y8d8s3WjS%255F%252DIWdtbW80NAtPGJSX%255Fem1YAuRRM3uUAcYMYuU55VJ9ff%255FHj4qdbjTN%252DNVmffof7YGzZ9bH88hTmYYhYJwTDEhANMdnfWiVMV%252DQZ5lIE8B0kdLbJSYSnB46Fov5Smt%252DruyJGGciAuqUkymm5EwNWZPgFqcHM06jCSDjcVT12VAxV%255FoPM6RClZJq%255FU0KWGNxY5s2zCOg9XBwidPUBIXC5Qom8WWI05VRs4SbodA3GBYOK%252DDkf9Veux8Ot4E8B9iw0kmiI1xCOg%26access%5Ftoken%5Fttl%3D0%26z%3DZ%252FyAZZilDOqu3yRQ9JmPfIQVBQ%252F0cGRLgj8I2BCatho%253D&waccluster=UK1Using data which Tamara supplied on the breakdown of business across the entire fashion industry: retail and design, we created a bespoke algorithim for the sector against all of the potential Brexit deals.
At a Global Network Annual Partners Event our European partners were puzzled about what Brexit will bring, generated a lot of debate.
So we created an algorithm that calculates what a different Brexit scenario will impact your company.
Our model looks at the impact of varying Brexit Scenarios. from macroeconomics to more business specific factors. What the post Brexit Relationship will look like.
Brexit Noticeboard.
Impact on the Labour Force, etc. Task for this roundtable to apply this model into the fashion industry.
Value of the UK fashion Industry, £28bn gross value added to the UK (2015). Mapping wise, the finances are very London oriented.
Breaks down into 8 different sectors.
All these different areas will face lots of different barriers due to Brexit.
Try to estimate how subsections make up these £28bn
Subsector income and other variables are all ran through the model separately.
Big spikes in tariffs and labour impact. Productivity issues.
All imports will become cheaper with Soft Brexit
Income Statement analysis: Charts from soft to hardest brevet.
What the scenario will be from a soft to a Harder Brexit.
Decline to a -38%GVA
Q: There must be some long term benefits coming from Brexit.
Different dynamics and components within the fashion industry.
Dan: Very bad import and export with the US. Been like that for over 20 yrs.
Very complicated. Lower numbers.
Better for export than export)
Demonstration of the model.
Potential impact of the loss of talent from Brexit. Essential for need for better agreements with the EU. Struggle with a Harder Brexit in the fashion industry.
Key Findings:
Supply train very complicated in fashion.
General confidence of UK consumers in a softer Brexit.
Tamara: different possible outcomes for different types of business and supply chains. Lobby with your info? We need you to air concerns on freedom of access and trade union
Short term: we haven't built up the domicile talent to exclude EU nationals from the employment needs.
Qs:
If you took out some of the variables out of it, is there anyway to cushion some these variable factors?
Dan: This could provide an idea of what to change in order to see how the curve would change.
T: Helps map the chaos, will help support the case, and what would happen if the £ went up, or a crashed £.
Speaker 7 - Sam White, Head of Retail at BEIS
https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/department-for-business-energy-and-industrial-strategy
Overview of his team's work:
Main purpose: ensure that the retail system thrives now and thrives in the future.
EU exit: what the issues are, and what the biggest concerns are for retailers. Working through trade bodies, etc.
What do you see at the main issues in the sector?
Tamara: access through customs union and freedom of movement.
Brands are being seduced by the other EU states. the Golden passport. If the deal isn't supportive, they will move. The UK hasn't been supportive enough of the business.
Local governments are knocking local businesses. Brick and mortar is being very discouraged. Unless this Government gets this message through other countries may start harbouring our businesses.
No interaction with Government organisations, which don't represent the fashion industry. A real understanding of all the companies that are leaving to other EU countries.
Q; High street: lack of confidence- resulting on lack of sales to domicile consumers, versus the current tourist consumer buy doing well due to the broken £ and discounts from Black Fridays. People don't want to buy 20 pieces from Topshop anymore, and sustainable fashion means sustainable growth, (not being a three season wonder). Something wrong with the way in which brands are supported. There was more support before Brexit as EU helped incubate brands. Less support now due to lack of EU budgets coming in.
Q: What will the DCMS and BEIS bring into the industry. What will you do to support small designers and brands? Big conversation, in which we need clarification.
What will be done to support talent and business?
Jack Kavet (DCMS): On the EU funding everything ends in 2020.
T: we need dialogue to bring in what we want. (N.B) Tamara and Bev are holding a meeting with Sam White at BEIS this Wednesday to discuss these issues in further detail)
Jack Kavet: Erasmus and structural funds were not funded or created. What the opportunities are from Brexit.
Paula: people keep asking/demanding what the opportunities are.
Rehana Ameer, Fashion Roundtable's Adviser: What we are doing for the financial industry: framework that can help the financial sector to understand what would work for the fashion industry? This kind of input may really help create guidelines. Involvement with financial industry.
T: Aim: we are collating information for a white paper next month.
P: Need for ambassador?
T: Yes. We see awareness of our work as stage one, building relationships and then looking at this. We are in crisis management now. Clear mapping for what could work for us. Communicating and lobbying, growing awareness. Setting out a manifesto of our concerns and our solutions.
Derren (guest): CIs could be worth £120bn and how the lack of skills may be impacted.
Jack Powell: Review was the first step towards that.
Government is aware of this. They are listening and ready to start the dialogue
T: These discussions are important- turning concerns into solutions. talent pipeline.