While it could still take years of negotiations and legal formalities before Britain will officially be able to step out of the European Union, many companies operating in the UK have already started to brace themselves for the transition. Some are even said to be considering relocating their offices or EU headquarters to locations such as Paris or Frankfurt. South Korea’s premier technology company, Samsung Electronics, is one such firm that was rumored to be considering shifting its European Headquarters from Chertsey, near London, to countries like the Netherlands, Germany or Poland, even as the wind of Eurosceptic politics that has swept up large sections of the British population starts making its presence felt across the continent in the wake of the Brexit result in the EU referendum.
Now, however, in what must be music to the ears of policy-makers in the UK, reports coming out of South Korea early Wednesday apparently claims that for now at least, Samsung Electronics is not considering moving its European operations out of Britain. Sections of the financial media in Samsung’s homeland are quoting an “unnamed Samsung executive”, who seems to have confirmed that “Maintaining the current location is the company’s official stance”. The unnamed company executive apparently reasoned that Brexit will not hamper the company as much as it might affect some other players, as it already operates sales units in many of the EU countries to tailor its products individually for those regions. There is, however, no official statement from Samsung regarding the issue at this point in time.
Meanwhile, Samsung’s operations in the UK are restricted to its sales and marketing departments, as the company does not operate manufacturing facilities in the country. Samsung, however, does run a manufacturing plant in Poland, given the significantly lower overall cost of operations in that country. While Samsung has now seemingly dismissed suggestions of shifting base from the UK, reports from yesterday had indicated that the company had cut over 17,000 thousand jobs across the world last year in places like China, Europe, South America and even its home country of South Korea. The company, however, more than made up for that by recruiting a whopping 325,677 people during the financial year in question, mostly in places like South East Asia and Japan.