UK – As the world reacted with shock and no little concern at the United Kingdom’s decision to leave the European Union as a consequence of the Brexit referendum, companies in the HVAC sector have been among those to react to the ongoing events. The Brexit referendum resolution was passed with 51.9% of the public voting to leave the EU.

One of the first companies to react was Bosch, the German-based industrial group, who released a statement deploring the voters’ decision to leave the EU. The Bosch group has been active in the UK since 1898 and had recorded sales totalling 2.7 billion pounds (3.7 billion euros) in 2015, making the U.K. Bosch’s second largest European market after Germany. In addition to the impressive turnover the group reported last year, Bosch also employs over 5,300 people across 40 different locations (including seven manufacturing sites) in the United Kingdom. The Bosch group is present across all four of its business sectors in the UK, having UK-based operations in Mobility Solutions, Industrial Technology, Consumer Goods, and Energy and Building Technology.

In their statement, the Bosch group declared that they believed that the EU is a successful project and that the group was disappointed by the decision to take the UK out of the world’s largest single market, with the group disclosing that this regret was not solely due to economic reasons. The group stated that they felt that the long-term economic consequences would only gradually become apparent.

The group continued, stating that they were currently examining the effects that the UK leaving the EU might have on their business, while also revealing that they had already put precautionary measures in place. These precautions included measures such as significantly raising the group’s hedging ratios in order to counteract a possible depreciation of the British pound. The group did deliver some good news to the beleaguered UK business world by stating that the group had no plans of scaling back their capital expenditure in the United Kingdom for the present moment at least.

The group concluded their statement by underlining that at present, it is still too early to comment on the possible consequences of the UK’s potential exit from the EU and that, in any case, the group expects to be be less affected than those companies which use the UK as a base into Europe, as the group is traditionally well represented in many European markets.