Radical uncertainty 

Seldom has a political event created such a talking point in our pet supplies sector as Great Britain's Brexit vote. The uncertainty prevailing among many players in the sector is not surprising: Great Britain is one of the most important markets in Europe, with a population that is in love with its pets and a number of important, innovative manufacturers of pet food and accessories that stimulate the market as a whole. If this market were to cease to grow, or if trading with the island nation were to involve significantly greater costs and bureaucracy than before, it would be a huge loss for the entire pet sector. Europe needs Great Britain and Great Britain needs Europe - that will not change even after Brexit, not even in the pet supplies sector.Small and medium-sized companies, which do not have branches in other countries, are likely to suffer more from Brexit than international players with subsidiaries and production plants worldwide that enable them to act with greater autonomy. However, there are more than a few British companies that, while not especially large, operate flexibly and nimbly. One interesting example from the pet sector that is featured in this edition of PET worldwide is Casco Pet. Founded and run by Matthew Bubear, the company has succeeded in opening six offices spread over six countries on three different continents in just a few years. It is a truly global business, which not only has extensive market experience thanks to its international spread, but can also operate without being affected to such a great extent by political decisions such as Brexit or by recurring exchange rate fluctuations. 
The views of industry players regarding Brexit, some of which are reported in PET worldwide's main feature on Great Britain, range from pessimism to an attitude of "now more than ever". Many caution against overestimating the effect of Brexit on our pet supplies business; they predict that the sector will continue to develop satisfactorily in the future.

Damian Shore, analyst at the market research company Euromonitor International, has summed up the current situation in a nutshell: the UK economy has entered the territory of radical uncertainty, the kind of uncertainty that cannot be boiled down to probabilities, as it is difficult to either…