It is very clear the current government are still pursuing Brexit on 31st October 2019 and whether the UK leaves with a deal or no deal the uncertainty of procurement and uninterrupted supply needs continual monitoring. Since the original referendum and Brexit date of 29th March 2019 Norseal has diligently assessed its Brexit risk assessment and can confirm:

Supply Chain

Automatic Drop Seals – Norseal has forward ordered and currently holds in stock more than 4 months of its most popular acoustic drop seals. This should be more than enough to see us through any delays in transportation and limited border controls.

Intumescent Product – The majority of intumescent products stocked by Norseal are sourced from UK suppliers. However, the active ingredients for these products are generally sourced from suppliers worldwide. Norseal is satisfied its supply chain have took all precautions to ensure there is enough ingredients available to them in the UK.

Certification

From the date of withdrawal, UK Notified Bodies will lose their status as EU Notified Bodies. As such they will not be able to perform conformity assessment tasks. Any current CE certificates will need to be renewed from a country in the remaining 27 member states however they will not expire until the end of the transition period. This period was originally from 29 March 2019 (original Brexit day) to 31 December 2020. The new transition period will only be confirmed once we know the actual date of withdrawal.

Note, in the internal door industry the following products are currently the only products that are required to meet the requirements of the CPR and be CE marked: Hinges, Door Closers, Locks, Panic Hardware, Emergency Exit Devices, Hold Open Devices (Closers & point magnets)

Door seals do not belong to a harmonised standard and therefore do not require CE marking.

British Standards

There is currently no evidence to suggest British Standards will no longer be accepted in worldwide regions where they have been accepted prior to Brexit. However, the majority of the most popular Norseal products, where required have been also tested to EN-1634.1.

Financial

Where possible Norseal forward purchase currency to ensure we are procuring at the best rate. This has proven difficult since the referendum as the Pound has not regained much ground since its collapse however we take our responsibility of trading internationally very serious to pass on any gains we can.

Depending on the type of Brexit the UK achieves it may be required that we trade under World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules. Should this be the case, certain tariffs will be applied on imported products. We are monitoring this and through negotiation with our EU partners aiming to minimise the impact of this to our customers.

We believe we have taken all necessary steps possible to prepare ourselves and the needs of our customers regardless of the type of Brexit we might face. We unfortunately cannot predict the unknown and would therefore ask any customers who have a requirement for product outside their normal usage to let us know whilst we have time to prepare.



Michael Spoors

Managing Director