Shropshire meringue firm ends EU exports over Brexit

Leanne Crowther said they want to get the "British domestic market right" before they return to exporting to the EU

A meringue manufacturing firm says it no longer exports to the EU due to issues created by Brexit.

Flower and White, which employs 30 staff at its Telford headquarters producing 1m products a day, formerly exported to 12 countries in the EU.

Thousands of pounds worth of stock have ended up left at ports due to confusion over rules for exporting food items, owner Leanne Crowther said.

For the business, Brexit had been "a disaster", she added.

Mrs Crowther and husband Brian said they would now try to build business in the domestic market, before looking to export again.

They began their cake and bakery business in a garden shed but have expanded and are launching a new product which will be on the shelves at Tesco at the end of the month.

Mrs Crowther had told the BBC before a Brexit deal was agreed, it had been "tricky to plan" the future of the business.

Flower and White employs 30 staff in Telford

While Flower and White still exports to the US, all sales into the EU have been stopped, she added.

"The problem we had was nobody really knew what was happening," Mrs Crowther said.

"Because we use egg, there was a real problem with 'do we need to get a vet in to certify the egg?' and we were being pushed from pillar to post from [the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs] and the Department for Trade and it was so difficult to understand.

"One person would tell us one thing and another would tell us another."

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Mrs Crowther said customers "completely understood" because they were having "exactly the same problems getting goods into their countries" and she knew of other UK companies that faced similar situations.

It had taken six months before they had chosen to pull the plug, she said, and "although it has been a disaster financially" she said it had given the business time to prepare for exporting in the future.

She said there was still "lots of opportunity" in the EU.

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