LONDON, Feb 9 (Reuters) - Britain's biggest sportswear
retailer JD Sports Fashion is likely to build a
distribution centre within the European Union and create around
1,000 jobs there to avoid paying post-Brexit tariffs, its
chairman said on Tuesday.
Several UK retailers, including Marks & Spencer and
ASOS, have highlighted issues re-exporting goods to EU
countries since the end of the Brexit transition period on Dec.
31, with tariffs imposed on items not made in the UK.
"We (Britain) said we had a free trade arrangement, that's
really not the case," JD Sports's executive chairman, Peter
Cowgill, told BBC radio.
"If you source from the Far East for instance and bring in
to the UK and (then) ship to stores (in Europe) then the tariffs
apply," he said.
That meant JD would need to locate an additional
distribution centre in Europe to complement its existing complex
in Rochdale, northern England.
"With it goes the employment that was previously in the UK,"
Cowgill said, noting it would need to employ about 1,000 people
in Europe.
The chairman said a combination of post-Brexit tariffs, new
systems, additional paperwork and red tape was costing the group
"double digit" millions of pounds.
He said Brexit had so far been "considerably" worse than he
had expected.
(Reporting by James Davey; editing by Kate Holton)
Marks & Spencer (MKS)
ASOS (ASC)
JD Sports (JD.)