Jacqueline Gallazzi-Ritchie is Director of the boiler service, repairs, and replacement provider All England Gas. Here, she shares how she expects the boiler and gas industry to be affected by Brexit.
Three years after the UK voted on Brexit, there’s still a great deal of uncertainty around what it’s going to mean for a lot of industries, including the boiler and gas sector. When we’re not even sure what kinds of deals are going to be on the table, it’s incredibly difficult to make any EU-related decisions with confidence. But it’s something we’re trying not to worry too much about — as most of the work we do is domestic, we haven’t felt the effects yet and are simply waiting to see what’s going to happen.
However, we’re aware that certain parts of our supply chain, and other companies we work with, have and will continue to be affected. So, here, I’m going to outline how we expect Brexit to rock the industry as a whole.
Suppliers are stockpiling parts
As no trade deal has been agreed upon yet, companies still aren’t sure whether it’s going to become more difficult and expensive to access parts and materials from mainland Europe. And, as a lot of our suppliers get their wares from the continent, some of them have started to stockpile parts just in case they’ll struggle to get hold of more, or it costs a lot more to import products in the immediate aftermath of Brexit.
It’s likely a lot of boiler and gas companies will also start to look for more UK suppliers to reduce their reliance on other countries within the European Union, as this could help to protect them post-Brexit. Of course, this is a positive for the UK’s economy as a whole, but it does also mean some companies might go through a rocky period as they work out the logistics with their new partners
It might become more difficult to recruit talent from abroad
We also need to consider the skills shortage the UK’s gas and boiler sector is currently suffering from (ECTA Training). So far, companies have been able to make ends meet by recruiting talent from mainland Europe, but we are seeing signs that this is going to become more difficult in the wake of Brexit. Therefore, businesses need to look at what they can do to soften the blow.
Firstly, because potential employees from the continent might have to jump through a lot more hoops to secure jobs here once we’ve left the European Union, businesses should focus more and more on showing that it’s going to be worth it. This means offering plenty of perks and competitive salaries — as well as shouting about them in your job advertisements.
Gas and boiler companies might also want to look for new ways in which they can encourage more people from the UK to train as engineers: for example, by partnering up with local schools and colleges to show why a job within the industry could be incredibly rewarding. This way, if it does become much harder to recruit workers from other countries within the European Union, the effects won’t be as detrimental.
Companies need to be willing to adapt
While we aren’t too overly concerned about Brexit at the moment, we know we need to be willing and prepared to adapt, whatever happens. This can be difficult for larger corporations to do, because there’s so much red tape in place and everything needs to be signed off by a queue of people —smaller companies have an advantage in this respect. We’re able to change our approach, put new processes in place, and look for alternative suppliers whenever the time calls for it. And, these are all things that companies within the gas and boiler industry need to be ready to do — it could be the difference between surviving Brexit and struggling to keep your head above water.
It’s incredibly important that business owners keep an eye out for the latest news and adjust their approach if they feel it’s necessary in the lead-up, during, and after the Brexit proceedings.
There’s still a great deal of uncertainty surrounding Brexit, so we can only speculate about how the boiler and gas industry is truly going to be affected. But these are the three main points gas and boiler business owners need to be thinking about and, as long as you ensure you’re always in the loop and are doing what’s in the best interests of your company, there’s no reason why we can’t all weather the storm.
