Eastwood Guitars is based in Liverpool, Nashville and Chicago and the head of the local office Carl Cook, warned of no-deal consequences on the Baltic Triangle podcast. Tony McDonough reports
A no-deal Brexit could force a specialist maker and supplier of guitars out of Liverpool.
Eastwood Guitars was founded just outside Toronto in Canada. In 2010 the company decided it needed a base to sell its top of the range guitars to bands and professional musicians in the UK and Europe.
It set up its business in Liverpool’s Baltic Triangle and now the company operates from three of the most famous musical cities in the world – Liverpool, Nashville and Chicago.
However, in an interview with the monthly Baltic Triangle podcast, Carl Cook, who heads up the Eastwood European operation from Liverpool, warns that it the UK left the EU without a trade deal, the firm could be forced to relocate to mainland Europe.
“Hopefully, it will sort itself out,” said Carl. “As a Liverpool company, the idea of not having a trade agreement in place with the EU would be a nightmare. We have a contingency that would see us locate our guitars onto the continent.
“We sell around 55% of our guitars into mainland Europe. You have to go where your market is. If we had to charge people extra money to ship out guitars from the UK it means we would lose so much competitive advantage.”
Click here to hear the full interview with Carl Cook on the Baltic Triangle podcast