SCARCE STORIES
On the Tuesday, we were like, ‘We’re golden. We come in as regulation 8714, go out as a complete bike on 8712. Ding, no tariffs,’ says Yorkshire bike brand Cotic’s owner and founder Cy Turner on his reaction to reading the UK-EU’s trade agreement, finalised at the eleventh hour of 2020. “Then we started to think, ‘If that’s the case, why has Canyon put its bikes up by 20 per cent? Why has YT Industries done the same? That’s when we started talking to Fairlight, Mason and a couple other bike brands, and it turned out that we would have to pay tariff ’s. Frankly, navigating the government and EU websites has been akin to crawling through a maze…”
Turner is nearly 20 years into his Cotic adventure and he holds a degree in mechanical engineering. He’s an intelligent, pragmatic man. But since the UK left the European Union on 1 January 2021 and the single market and customs union, like the rest of the bicycle industry, he’s been scratching his head over the impact of the complex new rules regarding tariff’s, VAT and handling fees.
But how much is the current disturbance in supply and rise in prices because of our EU exit, and how much can be pinned on the pandemic, or just good old-fashioned profiteering?
Origin story
The last-minute trade deal between the
