Olive oil shortage but lots of FREE Saturday doughnuts! say Whitmore and White battling Brexit bureaucracy

Whatever your views on Brexit, no one expected it to be painless.

Even the government acknowledged there would be 'teething troubles'.

For local deli and wine merchant, Whitmore and White, however, the experience right now is more like full on root canal work - without anaesthetic.

Today the popular company issued a social media plea for any logistics companies capable of transporting foodstuffs from Spain and Italy to make themselves known.

It seems that, post-Brexit, such a service has become nigh on impossible to deliver - and in the opposite direction, too.

This is bad news for Whitmore and White.

Jamie Moore explained: "Behind the scenes of our shopfront, we do a lot of corporate gifting work for big multinational companies, sending hampers as staff and client gifts all over Europe which reflect where their staff are based.

"Despite our best efforts, this is now just too complex for us at present and we can only service the UK. We're looking at partnering up with similar businesses based in EU countries so that they can fulfil European orders for us, but it's an unprofitable and admin-heavy approach."

Jamie says that, for the time being, the business has given up exporting out of the UK, and is finding it equally difficult to move foodstuffs from EU countries to home.

"Wine hasn't been an issue - thank God," he added, "but food has been more or less impossible so far.

"Our stocks of some amazing products are dwindling. We've tried to replace some of it with domestic produce, but things like olives and good olive oil are impossible to substitute, for example.

"What sets us apart is the fact that we've always directly imported the good stuff that nobody else has in the UK - and we're loath to head down the same road as the copy and paste shops that all stock the same boring things from wholesalers."

Jamie has asked Wirral South MP Alison McGovern and Health Secretary Matt Hancock (once a visitor to Whitmore and White's Frodsham branch) to see if pressure can be brought to bear on the government to reduce the friction of the new Brexit bureaucracy for companies like his.

But Whitmore and White is not the sort of outfit to let a problem get in the way of pleasure.

On Saturday, the Planet Doughnut launch will see the first 100 customers visiting the Heswall shop qualify for a FREE doughnut!

Supplies of olive oil may be running low, but importing Planet Doughnut's doughnuts - 'hand crafted in Shrewsbury' - should face no barriers as they become a welcome new addition to the Whitmore and White offering.

Be there or - unlike a doughnut - be square.