Mr. Gerry Mallon:

Many hedges will unwind in the first and second quarters of next year. Those kinds of hedges buy time, but only certain amount of time.

Our focus has been on working with those who are caught to help them plan and work through the issues that come with it. Can they look at broader hedges, for example structural rather financial hedges, such as buying raw materials, relocating, buying another business elsewhere, or ways of putting through price inflation into the markets in which one is selling? I think the UK is bound to suffer from a degree of price inflation, particularly in food. In some ways the UK consumer is already mentally ready for that and they have accepted the fact that their currency has dropped. It is difficult to get through to retailers.

We are also working with customers to look at how they transition away from a reliance on the UK market. It is a difficult period for many but the levels of sterling that we are operating at in the moment are not significantly different from that which existed in the 2009 to 2014 period. It is difficult, it is uncomfortable and it causes some pain but many of our customers are still able to deal with it, albeit with difficulty. Our main focus is looking to support them to be able to do that and help them to think longer term about how they manage. If one were to add tariffs on top of that, it would make the situation extremely difficult. That is one of the other things we are trying to help them on