Companies facing problems with rising costs need to re-evaluate their business model to cope with a long-term lowering of the low value of the pound, according to top business advisers.

Bosses need to adjust to the “new reality” of the weakened pound since the EU referendum said Simon Warne, a tax partner at accountancy firm Crowe Clark Whitehill, based in Maidstone.

He was speaking on KMTV business show Chris & Co alongside Andrew Mapstone, an international trader adviser at the Department for International Trade.

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Mr Mapstone said organisations need to be “robust” to manage currency risk but described the current situation as a “short-term boom” for exporters whose foreign customers now pay less for British goods because of the weaker pound.

The pound fell to a 31-year low against the dollar in one night after the vote to leave the EU and has wavered since on fears of a “hard” Brexit and protectionism in the US impacting the world economy.

Mr Warne said: “In terms of fluctuations there are various financial products out there which help you reduce risk.

“If it’s a long-term rise in your input prices your business solution has got to be to look carefully at your own business model and results and make sure your margin is still there.

“You have got to pass it on, which is why deflation brings the prospect of inflation, because we are looking at long-term price increases on the things we import.”

Mr Mapstone argued firms which have never sold goods abroad before should try to build trading relationships now while the going is good for exporters.

He said: “Broadly it has been very beneficial and we would like to encourage businesses to take hold of this windfall and start building those relationships with overseas partners.

“Then, should the currency movement go the other way, then that relationship, the service and quality of product is there. That should take them through any minor fluctuations in currency.”

He added that Kent did not export as much as it should because companies “hide their light under a bushell and don’t really go out and tell people exactly what they are doing”.

He said: “It’s as quick to get to Paris as it is to get to Manchester. Although our advice would be to get the low hanging fruit and attack markets which are easy to penetrate with stronger relationships to the UK, the next stage is to look at those ambitious high-growth markets, be it India or China, and launch your capability into those markets.

“I think Kent businesses are really good at that. Certain food and drink, engineering and logistics businesses have done very well.”