A Bristol company has stockpiled 80 tonnes of olives because of concerns over a no-deal Brexit.
The Real Olive Company has stored six months’ worth of olives in a bid to ensure their supply will not not be damaged if the UK leaves the EU without an agreement.
The Bristol-based company supplies olives to Waitrose and Ocado, and in June will add another unnamed major grocery store to their supply list.
Founder Karin Andersson - a Swedish citizen who has lived in the UK for the past 27 years - set up the company with her partner Ben Flight in 1998.
She said: “Normally we would buy [our supply] four weeks in advance, but we just couldn’t afford to have any potential hold-up.”
The Real Olive Company started building the stockpile a month ago.
They feared that border delays and tariffs caused by a no-deal Brexit would interfere with their olive supply from Greece, Italy, Spain, Morocco and France.
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The business is using seven containers to house its 80-tonne stockpile.
But acquiring such a large amount of olives has required the company to restructure its finances and find several new suppliers.
Karin added: “As a consequence, we had to look at our financing. We ended up saving money by taking our banking elsewhere.”
While the Real Olive Company sells most of their olives domestically, they also export some of their olives to Saudi Arabia and Ireland.
Despite the stockpile, Karin is unsure how Brexit is going affect sales.
Last year, Ms Andersson went to a trade event in Germany. She claims that many people at the event were unwilling to make future business plans until a definite Brexit plan was decided.
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Karin added: “We did a lot of investment that at the time felt high risk with everything that was going on.
“We took that jump because we needed to carry on, business carries on. Our business is not going to stop.
“People are still going to want to buy olives, and Greece will still want to supply us.”
If the UK can't secure another delay to Brexit it will leave the EU without a deal on 12 April.
