It was celebrations all round last Friday (September 27) when representative deputy lieutenant for the London Borough of Ealing, Richard Kornicki, presented the Queen’s Award for Enterprise: International Trade, to Acton based Rex London for the company’s spectacular export growth. However, sales director Nigel Biggs warned of the impact of a hard/no deal Brexit.
Since 2012, the company’s exports – to over 70 countries worldwide – have soared by more than 250%, accounting for around 55% of total sales last year. More than 60% of those international sales went to the EU – with France, Germany, Spain and Belgium being the key markets.
Nigel highlighted the importance of staying connected with international customers, attributing Rex London’s successes to this outward facing strategy.
“We are excited and proud to receive this recognition of our hard work,” Nigel commented. “We take a global outlook – with a particular focus on Europe. Our websites are fully translated into French, German and Spanish, and we participate in several European trade shows each year.”
He continued: “Clearly, we are worried that a hard or no-deal Brexit would affect the continued growth of our business, and our ability to expand further into European markets. That’s why we have recently established bases in Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium so we can sell direct to local retailers. This presence will also act a foothold in the EU should the UK leave without a deal, allowing us to avoid additional custom clearances while maintaining prompt delivery to our customers.”
He cautioned that any shift in order processing may have a long-term impact on staffing numbers in the UK operation.
Rupa Huq, MP for Ealing Central and Acton, who was in attendance for the award presentation said: “I’m delighted that Rex London has had royal recognition in the shape of a Queens Award. I’m really proud to be MP for the company, which employs 70 people, in my constituency, with such an impressive turnover in such testing times. The company started out in 1981, a courageous move when the country was mired in recession, and has gone from strength to strength ever since.”
Rex London, which designs and sells gift and homeware products from its Acton Vale base, employs over 70 people and produced a £12m turnover in 2018.
Top: The Rex team are shown at Friday’s Queen’s Award to Enterprise presentation which took place at the company’s Acton HQ.
