Brexit Statement

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 continue to monitor the situation and potential impact on our operations and are keeping our mitigation actions in place. Our Brexit team is helping to ensure business continuity to deliver the best support and services for our customers during the transition.

We have prepared for a number of scenarios including no deal or Hard Brexit. Key areas we have considered include 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 following any Brexit decision. Some specific actions that we have already taken to prepare include:

• The establishment of a customer reservation stock process to help secure supply of goods. While we have secured additional storage space to house our increased inventory and customer reservation stocks, please be advised we can no longer guarantee that for each request our manufacturers have enough production capacity for additional demand. 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 VWR account manager or customer service associate, or contact 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 and when 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. In case of a no-deal, we want to ensure supply of goods to Northern Ireland by having the option to route goods from our UK-based warehouse.

Despite the political uncertainty, we are confident that our planning will enable us to maintain the high level of customer service and support you have come to expect. We will keep you informed of any significant changes or updates as events unfold.

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

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