There is a constant stream of Brits to Mark Hollis’ shop, looking for the things that remind them of home: English tea, Cumberland sausages, crisps and Marmite.
“In Luxembourg you can only buy many of these things here,” says Rebecca Birmingham, as she leaves Home From Home laden with bags full of goods.
She’s a regular to Hollis’ shop in the town of Strassen. “I like the Irish cheese too,” she adds.  
Hollis never expected the shop to do so well when he opened it two months ago with his Irish colleague John Heffernan. The pair drives a refrigerated lorry to Kent, in southern England, twice a week to stock up.
“At the weekends especially, it’s packed,” says the 50-year-old, who has lived in Luxembourg for 30 years.
“There are just things that Brits miss and without which they can’t survive for some reason,” he adds, surrounded by bagels, crumpets and scones.
There are currently some 7,000 Brits in Luxembourg, says Hollis.
But that number is expected to rise when Britain exits the European Union next year, with lots of companies already announcing plans to move from London to Luxembourg, or at least expand operations there.
Lynn Robbroeckx, spokeswoman for the Luxembourg for Finance (LFF) agency, says that those firms include several big names, such as insurance company American International Group, US private equity firm Blackstone and the banks Citibank and JP Morgan.
Indeed, LFF, founded by Luxembourg’s government and its finance industry in 2008, already has 15 companies on the list.
“How many people these companies will actually move depends on the results of the negotiations, whether it’s a hard or a soft Brexit,” says Robbroeckx.
Many come from the insurance and private equity sectors, she says.
Luxembourg is an attractive option for them, being the second-biggest investment fund centre in the world after the United States. Many insurers already have bases in the grand duchy. “These companies don’t have to reinvent the wheel here,” says Robbroeckx. Prime Minister Xavier Bettel has also predicted more Brits.
“We’re assuming that more British firms will decide on Luxembourg as their entry point to the European market,” he told DPA.
Luxembourg is an internationally recognised centre of finance with stable growth, Bettel added, with “strengths and convincing arguments” that hadn’t simply arrived with Brexit.
However, he continued, “we consciously chose not to organise big campaigns in London and circle over the city like vultures.” 
The duchy, the EU’s smallest country, is currently home to more than 140 international banks, according to LFF figures.
Ninety-seven of the world’s top 100 investment companies are based there, as well as more than 300 insurers.
Hollis and Heffernan, who themselves were brokers for many years, have already expanded their plans.
“In the future we want to open up a tea shop,” says Hollis. The shop will also sell British souvenirs. 
Hollis, who has four children, loves Luxembourg. His home is in the country’s west, in the small town of Biwer.
“It’s a beautiful area,” he says. – DPA