East Lothian chocolatier says Brexit is leaving a bitter taste

An award-winning East Lothian chocolatier has warned that his family business is being devastated as he tries to deal with Brexit rules during the coronavirus pandemic.

Brexit blow: Friederike Tower and Alastair Gower

Alastair Gower and his wife Friederike run The Chocolate Tree Factory, which supplies customers across the world.

But the company has had to put shipments to the European Union (EU) on hold for its website orders and is finding it near-impossible to meet its customers’ needs.

Alastair said that the UK Government should have looked at ways to delay leaving the EU until after the pandemic, saying the strain of dealing with both was going to be too much for many small business owners.

The Chocolate Tree Factory produces stunning treats

The business is based at Knowes Farm, near East Linton, and produces artisan chocolate products which use organic and sustainable ingredients sourced from around the globe.

The specialist business is also a member of the 1 Percent for the Planet, with the percentage of its profits going to environmental non-profits.

The couple are currently also juggling running the business, which employs a small team of staff, with overseeing homeschooling their two children Roslyn, 12, and Rowan, eight.

Alastair said: “Between the paperwork involved in trying to send out supplies to our EU customers, keeping the business going and homeschooling, I am working nightshifts and starting at 4am some days just to get things done.

“I am swamped and stressed about it and cannot believe we have been put in this position. If the UK Government could have delayed Brexit, they should have.

“We should not be having to deal with these changes and issues during this pandemic. It is too much.”

The family have been building the company’s EU customer base for several years, with regular trips to festivals across Europe, and estimate that orders from there now make up 35 per cent of the business.

In recent weeks, however, they have had one package sent to a customer in France, who ordered more than £100 of chocolate, returned three times – once because the VAT number was wrong, the second time with no reason and the third time because France has a ban on food being imported from the UK.

A delivery to a German customer was also returned with no reason and Alastair says the company faces having to pay a fine to a customer in the Netherlands because it cannot import fruit from Germany quickly enough to meet their order.

He said: “It is in the customer’s contract that if we cannot supply them we can be fined but it requires organic freeze-dried raspberries which we need to import from Germany, because we cannot source them here.

“Normally the order would take about a week to arrive but it is taking six weeks to get here.”

“One form asks me to supply the vehicle registration of the delivery van which will be taking my package into France when I have no way of knowing that and we have been told that our French customer cannot receive the order unless they have a customs broker!

“The paperwork is something that I think we could deal with if it came after the pandemic but trying to cope with it now with all the other pressures is too much.”

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