Any business that wants to stay pennywise, needs to prepare for the euro.

Britain may not be part of the Economic and Monetary Union - yet - but its currency will inevitably affect British businesses.

"It may not affect them on January 1 when the euro is introduced into Europe; it may not affect them in the first few weeks," said Nick Athorne.

"But eventually it will affect all businesses."

It is a message he is getting across as a finance counsellor at Business Link Essex, which holds seminars to prepare businesses for the impact of the euro. But businesses are slow at acting on the news.

"The last survey showed that only five per cent of businesses were looking at the implications of the euro on their business," said Mr Athorne.

Yet it should have been covered by 100 per cent of businesses by the end of this year.

Mr Athorne pointed out that even those companies that did not deal directly with foreign exchange would be affected by the euro; they would come into contact with it through domestic supply chains as more suppliers would be dealing in euros.

So Mr Athorne said businesses, however small, should prepare for the euro, if they had not already done so. Information was readily available from support organisations, such as Business Link Essex, and from banks, with many seminars being held on the issue.

One British company which anticipates the euro will have a significant impact on its business is Marks and Spencer.

It will trade in the euro in its European branches and with European suppliers, said Cheryl Kuczynski, a spokesman for the chain.

She said that preparations were also being made for dual trading in this country. All stores will have designated tills for prices to be shown in the euro: initially this will be for the benefit of customers from overseas who would want to use cheques in the euro denomination.

"But a greater demand will come in 2002 when the currency is actually introduced," said Miss Kuczynski.

"All the stores will have the facility to ring up the euro as they can Japanese yen or American dollars."

She said the company's team investigating the euro went beyond the shop floor to accounting systems.

The vast changes that will come with the euro have also led to a special team being set up within the trading standards department of Essex County Council.

"We are always interested in giving advice to businesses and looking at the market place to check no cons will be introduced," said Christine Wade, head of trading standards.

There is plenty of potential with the dual pricing that will come in with the euro.

"We want to make sure there are no misunderstandings," said Mrs Wade.

"We believe people may be confused."

There were problems, after all, caused by the change to decimal currency.

But Mrs Wade had some encouraging news, caused by the fact that Britain is not leading the way in the first wave of European Union countries to join the Economic and Monetary Union.

She said: "In some respects we will learn from the 11 countries that have participated in the first wave."

But fears remain that those companies that are unprepared will only learn through trials and errors of their own.

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