Ian King has a lot to get off his chest. The native of Co Antrim is the chief operating officer of ZeroIgnition, a firm which spent a decade developing a fire-retardant chemical for use in construction materials before launching it in the lockdown-stricken year of 2020.

But, during an hour-long phone call on a rare sunny afternoon in March, King (pictured) barely mentions the pandemic. What has caused the most upheaval to ZeroIgnition’s long-term business plan is something else entirely – the government’s Brexit deal.

The trade agreement between the UK and the EU signed on 30 December last year – a day before the end of the transition period – has marked a profound change in the way that businesses in this country interact with those on the continent. UK exporters to the EU’s single market now face a bewildering succession of additional hoops to jump through before they can reach their customers. With SMEs feeling they lacked clear government guidance in the lead-up to Brexit, it has created turmoil for firms that depend on trade with the bloc.

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