The United Kingdom?s 52 percent vote yesterday to divorce the European Union will have repercussions for luxury brands and retailers as their high-net-worth customers and prospects scramble to figure out what this referendum?s results means to them.
Chief among the concerns will be the fate of the rich and super-rich?s investments in the U.K., especially the performance of the London Stock Exchange and European and American bourses to which their net worth is indexed.
Also worrisome is the issue of free movement of labor within the E.U. Border controls may deter impulse travelers from day or weekend trips to the continent and vice versa for visitors to the British Isles.
Visa requirements may also return. And free movement of skilled labor will be affected as part of an anti-immigrant backlash that fueled the no-E.U. vote. While the knock-on effect of this anti-E.U. victory may not be immediate, it will cause concern to luxury brands and retailers with a presence on London?s Bond Street and Regent Street, among other popular shopping venues in that city and elsewhere.
Likewise, favored British vacationing and second-home locations in the E.U. may see loss of business as affluent Britons figure out the tax implications for investments in an E.U. where they do not share benefits of membership.
Paris, Milan, Rome, Geneva and Berlin may also see lower retail revenues if fewer well-off Britons visit, or, as many fear, this British vote is the beginning of the end of the E.U. pro...