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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Politics
Toby Helm

‘Brexit has been an utter disaster’: the royal heritage firm that can’t sell its wares abroad

The famous Kings & Queens of England set made by Heritage Playing Cards.
The famous Kings & Queens of England set made by Heritage Playing Cards. Photograph: David Levene/The Guardian

With products on sale at Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey and museums across the country – as well as in European capitals – Jeremy Shaw, the managing director of Derbyshire-based Heritage Playing Cards, has particular reason to hope the coronation will be good for the business he set up 30 years ago.

The past few years have been anything but. First, the Covid pandemic shut all museums and their shops, meaning an almost total collapse in domestic and overseas sales. Then the country’s leading producer of heritage playing cards – whose popular kings and queens of England pack has been updated ahead of the coronation to include one of Charles III – saw its export business almost completely wiped out by Brexit.

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