Hundreds of British businesses are contemplating opening up shop in the Netherlands before the end of this year. This, according to Dutch newspaper AD, in an attempt to keep access to 446 million potential customers on Mainland Europe. The Netherlands Foreign Investment Agency (NFIA) says it is speaking with over four hundred companies about coming to our country.
Last year, 78 British companies already came to the Netherlands. Since the Brexit referendum until the end of 2019, the NFIA has tapped a total of 140 Brexit refugees who have created 4,200 new jobs and invested hundreds of millions of euros.
I personally don’t fear that this will lead to chip shops, off-licences and Tesco Expresses on the street corners of Amsterdam, Eindhoven, Alkmaar or Leeuwarden. I welcome UK’s trade spirit to our playing field. Look forward to the cultural challenges and opportunities. Not to mention, I love a good bacon roll as much as the next man.
Several dozen companies have now been added. These are not only purely British companies. Companies that now serve Europe from Great Britain are also considering whether they would not be better off with a branch in the EU. At the end of 2019, the Clingendael institute investigated 56 companies relocating their trade from the UK to the Netherlands, half of them were not originally British, but American or Japanese, for example.
Are you curious about the trade opportunities and challenges in Netherlands’ Foodservice landscape and would you like to have a chat with me on this subject? Don’t hesitate to connect and contact me via dannyvanstiphout@me.com. Needless to say, likes, comments, shares, forwards and recommendations are very welcome. Cheers!
