AN IMPORTANT MESSAGE TO OUR INTERNATIONAL CUSTOMERS AND DISTRIBUTORS
It is a major part of our Company strategy to grow our international sales substantially in the coming years, so the UK’s decision to leave the European Union has been a great disappointment to us on these grounds, but also of course on many others. However, we are not going to be deflected from our goal, so we will be doing whatever it takes to ensure that dealing with us in the future becomes relatively no more difficult or expensive than it is now. In the short term, the inevitable fall in the value of Sterling will actually make our products cheaper internationally for a while, so why not make the most of it before the export tariffs start to kick in? Here in the UK, we will be making hay while the sun shines, but “winter is coming!”, and we certainly intend to be one of the survivors. We are in a healthy condition, and with many exciting new products in the pipeline to add to add to our established ranges, so we are in a strong position to weather the financial storms that may now hit the UK.
As part of our response, we expect we’ll need to progressively brand ourselves as an international company rather than a purely British one. We are already very well represented in North America by Chroma Technology’s 89North subsidiary, and it also looks as if we can get increasing access to the Asian market via that route, so fortunately no changes are needed there. It is of course to continue full access to the European market that changes will need to be made. These are decisions for the future rather than today, but the establishment of a physical Cairn presence somewhere in the continuing part of the EU is likely to be necessary. One particular possiblity that we’ve had our eye on for a while is that a vote for the UK as a whole to leave the EU may lead to a second independence referendum in Scotland, so that they can stay in the EU, or at least reapply. We already have a physical presence in Scotland, which is working very well for us, so strengthening that presence is certainly our currently preferred option.
But these are issues for the future. The message from Cairn for now is that we DO believe in working together for the common good, and we will be doing our best to ensure that the shortsighted decisons of others will be of as little detriment as possible to our own small contributions in that direction. Please stay with us!
Dr Martin Thomas
Company founder and President
24 June 2016
