Rolls-Royce has spent £100million preparing for Brexit but has admitted production could be disrupted if the UK crashes out of the European Union with no deal in October.
Chief executive Warren East said his company was in a “much better” position than many other firms but the business could not “guarantee everything”.
Mr East also warned that large numbers of jobs could be lost at companies across the country if Britain leaves with no agreement.
“We are in a much better position, fortunately, than many other companies," he told the Guardian. “I don’t think many people in Rolls-Royce are going to lose their jobs as a result of Brexit directly, [but] at a lot of other companies that’s what people are looking at.”
Rolls-Royce has been stockpiling at its plant in Derby since last year as well as investing in logistics in the case of a no-deal scenario.
“We have a bit of a buffer [but] we cannot guarantee everything; we have thousands of suppliers and we have talked to all of them about contingency planning,” said Mr East.
“When you screw together 5,000 parts to make an engine you have a problem if you have 4,999 of those parts, but one missing because a supplier has no contingency plan.”
Rolls-Royce, which employs 54,000 people worldwide including 23,400 in Britain, has said it is "committed" to its UK operations and will remain in the UK in all Brexit circumstances.
The news comes as Rolls-Royce reports a rise in half-yearly sales and profits . The engineering giant revealed that in the six months to the end of June, underlying sales grew by seven per cent to £7.353billion.
Meanwhile, underlying operating profit at the company also increased to £203million - a rise of £48million.
However, the cost of fixing the issues with its Trent 1000 engines has risen by £100million - on top of the £1.5billion that was already set aside. The engines have been wearing out faster than expected.
