It is reported that as many as 20,000 small businesses in the UK have stopped exporting to the EU since 2019, after facing increased red tape due to Brexit.

A business that has tackled these challenges head on is Tyson London, a renowned creator of lighting, furniture, and accessories.

Tyson Bennison, Director at Tyson London, comments: “We create products for the world’s top interior designers, each item is bespoke and handcrafted in our UK workshop in Horsham. We service time-sensitive projects for leading interior designers and decorators so when Brexit came into force, we were left in a really challenging situation.

“Like many smaller-sized businesses, the additional fees, extensive customs paperwork and delayed shipments hit us really hard.”

Tyson therefore required a reliable logistics solution that would remove these additional hurdles and enable Tyson to focus on doing what they do best – making bespoke, luxury furniture and lighting for the world’s best interior decorators. Faced with the very real prospect of losing valued customers, it was vital that a reliable and simple solution was found.

After searching for several months, in 2021 the firm discovered Europa Flow, a then new DDP shipping service of, Europa Road, the European road freight division of Europa Worldwide Group.

Bennison continued: “Before discovering this service, our main challenge was customs charges. The customs centres would give our customers an unreasonably small amount of time to pay charges which often resulted in goods being sent back to the UK without notice.

“We are working towards rebuilding our customer base by attracting and retaining both old and new customers, which means strong communication has been a key requirement from our logistics provider.

“It is vital that our goods are delivered on time and in one piece, which has previously been a sticking point, but with the support of the Europa team our goods are transported seamlessly and carefully. We communicate with Europa teams on both sides of the Channel which guarantees smooth transit over to the EU.

“We have also had great support for last-minute shipments, which has ensured our customers don’t have to experience any pain points associated with Brexit. We’ve had an exceptional service from Europa as we’re able to now guarantee delivery times to the high-end development systems we service, a crucial element to supporting our customers. We’re working to rebuild our customer base and Europa’s service is ensuring we can do this.”

Tom Archer, Branch Manager of Europa Road in Dartford, comments: “We have customs experts on both sides of the Channel, offering guaranteed transit times to all leading EU destinations. For smaller to mid-sized operations, our specialist finance teams are able to take care of their customs administration in-house, improving service to their customers and protecting their trade with the EU.

“When the Brexit deal was announced, we immediately started work on creating a service that would guarantee a pre-Brexit service to our customers. The result was Europa Flow, into which we invested £5million, and which now comes with a Money Back Guarantee option.”

Europa is strategically located close to the Dartford Crossing, operating the UK’s largest European groupage 1Hub in Dartford, Kent. The operator is one of the largest commercial users of the Eurotunnel and makes more than 30,000 journeys annually into the EU from the British terminal in Folkstone.