Brexit Statement for Customers

The decision by the United Kingdom to leave the European Union, known as Brexit, presents challenges to businesses across both the UK and the wider EU. We are implementing the necessary changes to our distribution network and business operations to minimize disruption and ensure we continue to provide ongoing quality service and support to our customers during the transition.

We remain focused on key areas we have considered to be important; including, but not limited to changes to tariffs, customs borders, exchange rates and regulatory frameworks, as well as any impact on our integrated supply chain. We are operating and preparing at every level of our organization, from customer service, sales, and procurement, to finance, compliance, human resources, and information technology.

We have identified more than 250 actions to help maintain our operations. Some specific actions that we have already taken to prepare are:

• The establishment of a customer reservation stock process to help secure supply of goods. We have secured additional storage space to house our increased inventory and customer reservation stocks. We will assess each request on a case by case basis. If you are interested in placing a reservation, or plan to place additional orders to increase your stock levels or build safety stock, please contact your Account Manager or Customer Service Associate, or alternatively email us at brexit.uk@vwr.com
• Continuous monitoring and adjustment of inventory levels in our UK, Ireland and EU facilities to reflect the new exit date. This monitoring ensures that we can adjust to fluctuations in demand and supply
• We have worked with our logistics partners to identify alternative shipping routes and have plans in place to switch routes with minimal notice if required. For our shipments to Ireland we have permanently changed our routes so that they no longer transit through the UK, avoiding any potential delays with shipments from the EU to the UK
• We have implemented changes to our distribution network so that our Dublin Distribution Centre will supply Northern Ireland instead of our Distribution Centre in Lutterworth, UK. This will ensure regulatory compliance is maintained and that the impact of tariffs is minimised

In the meantime, we are available to discuss any specific concerns. If you have further questions, please contact your Account Manager or email us at brexit.uk@vwr.com.