Brexit 10 years on: Has business risen, or is it underbaked?
BBCA decade on from the vote that led to the UK leaving the European Union, Yorkshire-based businesses have been discussing how Brexit has affected them.
Since the vote that led to the UK officially departing in January 2020, one firm said it had become harder to recruit staff - but another company has seen exports from its factory increase.
'We should never have come out'
Kevin Hopper's office is filled with promotional posters for some of the world's biggest rock bands.
His West Yorkshire-based company, Trucking BY, specialises in music tour logistics and transports stage sets for the likes of Coldplay, Iron Maiden and the Red Hot Chili Peppers.
Prior to the UK leaving the EU, his drivers used to be on the road for several months at a time.
Changes after Brexit mean they can only spend 90 days in every 180 days in the EU, so they have to return to the UK.
"They can't legally do it anymore," explains Hopper.
"If the drivers are caught abroad exceeding the 90 days, there's a 12-month travel ban put on them and a fine.
"They've all got mortgages, they've all got cars, they've all got commitments, but we can't offer them the work we did."
About 60 lorries operate from the firm's Featherstone haulage yard, with the company also opening offices in the EU to lessen the risk of drivers breaking the 90-day limit.
"We've got 25 trucks in Copenhagen on Danish registrations with foreign drivers driving them," says Hopper.
"Last year we opened an office in Ireland, we've got 10 trucks in Dublin with Irish drivers driving them.
"So in effect that's 35 UK jobs which are no longer available to UK tax-paying people because of Brexit."
When asked if he would like the UK to rejoin the EU, Hopper says: "We should never have come out, it definitely hasn't worked for us because we have to transport goods into Europe."
'Our EU sales have risen since Brexit'
For Fosters Bakery in Barnsley, Brexit has led to a mini boom - with sales to the EU trebling since the UK left.
"We're now selling about a million pounds a year into Europe," says managing director John Foster.
"I put that down to the fact that people have just thought, 'it's too hard', and have abandoned it when they didn't persevere."
The family business makes bread for sandwiches, speciality loaves and confectionery.
The EU exit has led to an increase in paperwork, he says, and adapting to new trading rules so the bakery can legally export goods from the UK into the EU.
"I'll not say it's simple," he says.
"I'll not say we don't curse every time we do it, because we always moan about everything, but there were a lot of people in all industries that were crying before they'd been hit.
"Things hadn't happened and yet they were moaning."
He also says that whilst Brexit was a worry, its impact was overshadowed by the Covid pandemic.
'Brexit has made it harder to get staff'
Printing firm FaberExposize UK had only just launched in 2016 when Brexit took hold.
The Leeds-based company had received grant funding from the EU to buy some of its high-tech printing machines.
For managing director Iain Clasper-Cotte, he says leaving the EU has made it harder to recruit the workers he needs.
"Staffing has been difficult for us," he says.
"We were quite reliant on Eastern Europeans when we first started here 10 years ago.
"That workforce has dried up a little a bit and so we now have a lot of Pakistanis that are working in sewing and finishing for us."
He continues: "It's a harder process, the pool that we fish in is shrinking all the time, a lot of youngsters don't want to come into industry and so we're constantly trying to find people."
Clasper-Cotte says he would like a closer trading relationship with the EU and a freeing up of borders.
"It's foolish not to trade with them and I think there will be a slow drift back," he says.
But he warns against reigniting the national in/out debate.
"All that antagonism and political unrest that we experienced, that would be very difficult for everybody," he concludes.
Listen to highlights from West Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North.
