Japanese companies in the UK who have moved their product distribution hub to the EU in anticipation of what is now happening. One in a long thread, just to make a point that *some* companies have been preparing for worst case Brexit for years 1/13

Allegro MicroSystems Europe, semiconductors and ICs, owned by Sanken Denki, now importing into EU via Netherlands rather than UK. Amano Enzyme Europe transferred EU stock to warehouse in EU 2/13
Anritsu EMEA (sales and service of testing and measuring solutions to communications industry) all EU deliveries now go to second transport hub in Netherlands. Audio Technica established European Distribution Centre in Netherlands for Brexit (bit of a 🇳🇱theme here) 3/13
Eisai Europe (manufactures pharmaceuticals in Hatfield) transferred centralised marketing authorizations to Frankfurt, established testing and storage facilities in Antwerp. Electric Glass Fiber holding stock in EU for Brexit 4/13
Enplas Europe (semiconductors) acquired warehousing in NL for Brexit. Fujichem Sonneborn opened warehouse in Spain for Brexit. Furukawa Electric Europe shifted warehouse and distribution to Germany. 5/13
Furuno (marine electronics) has bonded warehouse in Rotterdam, stockbuilding, obtained Ireland export license to prepare for Brexit. KIP UK (wide format printing) transferred stock to warehouse in Germany for Brexit. 6/13
Kubota transferred sales & distribution for Nordics & Baltics to Germany in 2018. Lighthouse (signing + labelling machines) set up subsidiary in NL. Margaret Howell clothing (owned by Anglobal) set up additional warehousing + accounting functions on continent for Brexit 7/13
Pentax (endoscopic products) moved Ireland distributorship moved away from UK to European HQ in Germany as Brexit contingency. Sodick Europe (electrical discharge machining) bonded warehouse in NL 8/13
One of the most well known moves - Sony Europe - turned itself into a branch of Sony Europe BV in Netherlands. Already had a warehouse there. Also built state of the art warehouse in Czech Rep in 2017 in 8 months 9/13 https://t.co/afuB19gnOE
Similarly Panasonic Europe in UK became branch of Panasonic Europe in Germany, where European distribution centre was already. This was upgraded in 2018. 10/13 https://t.co/tWTWv3uSpB
Srixon Sports Europe opened a new distribution centre in NL for Brexit. Sumi Agro Europe will use its branch in Germany for post Brexit trading. Ishida Europe (food/beverageprocessing/packaging machines) opened distribution centre in NL in 2018 11/13
Sometimes the preparations are in the UK - Tomy, Japanese toy company already had a warehouse in Belgium, so took on temporary warehousing in UK for Brexit. 12/13
None of these companies are leaving the UK entirely as yet, but note many of them have "Europe" in their company name, and most are not manufacturing in UK. UK staff will have to fight hard to keep regional HQ status in years to come. 13/13
PS: Has this meant a decline in the numbers employed? Well, the results for 2019/20 not in for all I've covered above, but for those where there are figures, seems to have been an 8% drop on average from 2015/6. Turnover grew to 2018/9 but down 2% 2019/20 on the previous year.

More from Brexit

End of week 2 thread on post Brexit food trade

There is continued growing unease. The main picture remains one of depressed/tentative trade (c50% down y-o-y) and some high profile logistics business have taken the rational step to stop and regroup.

The big worry here is that ‘not-trading’becomes a habit. We can’t/won’t carry on at half the volumes of before, but as volumes claw back we may only reach something like 80% of previous volumes and that is a disaster for a food industry already battered by a recession.

Lots of focus has been on the idea of EU businesses stopping serving the UK. Worries about how we feed ourselves has trumped worry about our exporters at every stage. Even though it is the collapse of our export businesses that is (and has always been) the greater threat.

To reassure the mainland British shopper that feels like less of a risk. UK is a large market of wealthy consumers, and UK gov has shown it will do anything (however unfair) to ensure stuff gets in - even letting supermarkets have access to the fast track lane to Dover.


I am not as close to this but it feels like shortage on the shelves is more of a genuine immediate threat for the island of Ireland. The types of innovative solutions we have discussed this week can help but will they come in quick enough?

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So the cryptocurrency industry has basically two products, one which is relatively benign and doesn't have product market fit, and one which is malignant and does. The industry has a weird superposition of understanding this fact and (strategically?) not understanding it.


The benign product is sovereign programmable money, which is historically a niche interest of folks with a relatively clustered set of beliefs about the state, the literary merit of Snow Crash, and the utility of gold to the modern economy.

This product has narrow appeal and, accordingly, is worth about as much as everything else on a 486 sitting in someone's basement is worth.

The other product is investment scams, which have approximately the best product market fit of anything produced by humans. In no age, in no country, in no city, at no level of sophistication do people consistently say "Actually I would prefer not to get money for nothing."

This product needs the exchanges like they need oxygen, because the value of it is directly tied to having payment rails to move real currency into the ecosystem and some jurisdictional and regulatory legerdemain to stay one step ahead of the banhammer.
First update to https://t.co/lDdqjtKTZL since the challenge ended – Medium links!! Go add your Medium profile now 👀📝 (thanks @diannamallen for the suggestion 😁)


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I’m torn on how to approach the idea of luck. I’m the first to admit that I am one of the luckiest people on the planet. To be born into a prosperous American family in 1960 with smart parents is to start life on third base. The odds against my very existence are astronomical.


I’ve always felt that the luckiest people I know had a talent for recognizing circumstances, not of their own making, that were conducive to a favorable outcome and their ability to quickly take advantage of them.

In other words, dumb luck was just that, it required no awareness on the person’s part, whereas “smart” luck involved awareness followed by action before the circumstances changed.

So, was I “lucky” to be born when I was—nothing I had any control over—and that I came of age just as huge databases and computers were advancing to the point where I could use those tools to write “What Works on Wall Street?” Absolutely.

Was I lucky to start my stock market investments near the peak of interest rates which allowed me to spend the majority of my adult life in a falling rate environment? Yup.