February 2009
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WelcomeWelcome to CCL's February 2009 newsletter. We’re hearing from all sides how challenging business is becoming as the words recession, down-turn and even depression get bounced around. Customs Clearance Ltd aims to help and support customers old and new, past and present, through difficult times and changing circumstances. If your business is looking to downsize, but you feel vulnerable when it comes to handling customs entries and declarations yourself, this is one area where you can benefit from our as-needed services. You get the experts, on-tap, when you need us. You can think of us as an extension to your own workforce, but we don’t cost as much, or take up a chair or a desk. Or maybe things are going better for you (because not everybody suffers in a recession). If you’re looking to expand but worry about the expense and technicalities of dealing with HMRC and the regulations, we can supply the knowledge and expertise – making you look good not only to HMRC, but to your customers as well. Using CCL’s services on an ad-hoc or regular basis can help you demonstrate expertise where it counts, and save you time and expense too. Contact us any time for an exploratory chat about your particular situation. In this issue we’re highlighting how we can assist e-commerce businesses and spotlighting a dynamic property company in the equally dynamic city of Dubai. Our Q&A section is back too, and we have another Coffee Break Story to accompany your next latte or cappuccino. Come and find us across the world in the coming weeks. We’re on Stand No 23 at the Triangle World Mail & Express Americas Conference and Exhibition from 24-25 February at the Hilton Miami in Florida. In May we’ll be in Hong Kong on Stand No 2055 at the Courier & Parcel Logistics Expo Asia from 19-21 May. Let us know if you plan to be at either of these events. Continuing our trend of saluting some of our avid readers, our shout this month is for Ken Powell. Keep up the cycling, Ken, it’s taken years off you!! Also a big hello to Robert Hepburn in Dubai, who is another loyal regular reader. Thanks for being such a great host on Rudee’s last visit to Dubai, Robert. One last thing – if you’ve ever considered branching out, we have an opportunity we’d like to discuss with you. Check out our web site here, then call Rudee or Brian for a confidential chat. Enjoy the rest of this issue and don’t forget, for any customs and importation queries, make our friendly and approachable Customer Services team on +44 (0)20 8231 0900 In this issueE-Commerce without the Pain E-Commerce without the PainEven in difficult times, e-commerce is a big growth area. Consumers like shopping by internet and these days, your customers could be anywhere. But this can make the task of importation and onward distribution a complex one, demanding warehousing space and teams of people handling customs clearance and distribution. All of this adds to your costs and defocuses you from the business of sales growth. Customs Clearance Ltd has been working with e-commerce traders for many years. Our processes are tried-and-tested, and give our customers the speed and efficiency gains they need to deliver top service and stay ahead of their competition. We manage every aspect of importation and customs clearance, freeing you up to focus on growing your business. With a network of agents across the world, a team of customs specialists and an ERTS bonded warehouse, we can move your goods from your source supplier anywhere in the world to your end customers in the UK and across Europe. We provide:
But how does it work in practice? As an e-commerce supplier, you are probably collating orders on a daily basis and instructing your overseas supplier to produce a single shipment for the day. Customs Clearance Ltd can collect and freight this to the UK for you. Having received the documentation from your supplier, we clear the shipment through customs, and, in our warehouse, break it down to individual customer orders. These are then dispatched across Europe by parcel post options or courier services. There is duty to be paid, of course. But our job is to simplify and streamline the process for you, whether you incorporate the duty into your original price to the customer (that’s DDP - Duty Delivered Paid), or require them to pay their duty directly (that’s DDU – Duty Delivered Unpaid). In the case of DDU, our on-line secure payment system ensures that your customers can pay the required duty quickly and easily, via their PC. Customs Clearance Ltd exists to make the process of freighting and clearing customs a pain-free and straightforward experience, particularly if, as an e-commerce business, you are a regular importer. With experienced, professional support from CCL, you save time and money and can provide the fastest and most efficient service to your own customers. If your business is growing and you don't want to hire more people or lease a new warehouse, find out how Customs Clearance can support you. Visit www.customsclearanceuk.com for more information, then contact us on +44 (0)20 8231 0900 to discuss your situation with our experts. Spotlight on Dubai: Al Habtoor PropertiesOne of the seven emirates of the United Arab Emirates, the vibrant and rapidly expanding city of Dubai is home to over 185 ethnicities from around the world. Its strategic location at the crossroads between East and West, has made it a leading business and trading hub between Europe and the Far East. Dubai is one of the few places on earth where the city’s map gets outdated within months and even within weeks. The land profile is being constantly redefined with the launch of new towers, townships and real estate projects, many boasting global renown even in their development stages. Al Habtoor Properties LLC offers a professional approach to the real estate business in Dubai. Servicing both local and international clients, their experienced property consultants maintain an up-to-date knowledge of their market. They advise, guide and offer a comprehensive range of solutions for leasing, rental and freehold ownership in Dubai and the surrounding area. Their web site contains details of a multitude of new developments – it’s well worth a look. If you’re contemplating setting up a base in Dubai or you’d just like to know a little more about the opportunities and potential, contact Joanna at Al Habtoor Properties (joanna@habtoorproperties.com). Q&A - Everything you wanted to know about importing, but were afraid to ask!Each issue (well, most issues), we answer in brief one or two of your more specific customs and importation questions. Q: We currently have an internal team who customs clear the products we collect daily from Heathrow. We’re considering using an outside company if we can show cost benefits. How can you help? A: We have found there are often cost benefits to outsourcing customs clearance services. By using CCL, you effectively purchase our services on an as-needed basis, saving staffing and overhead costs. You also gain the benefit of our many years of expertise in ensuring that your shipments promptly and efficiently processed and that you meet all the import related legislative requirements relevant to your business. In order to provide a quote for you, we will need the following information:
With this information to hand, we are confident that we can provide a quote which will demonstrate best value and cost benefit to you. Q: We would like to import goods from the USA. We are based in the UK but our customers will be in Eastern Europe. If we were to use your services as import agent what will you be able to do for us? A: Customs Clearance Ltd would be delighted to assist you with importation of goods from the USA, for onward shipment to destinations within Europe. We act as a gateway clearance agent into Europe from the USA, offering a total solution comprising specialist advice, customs clearance services, warehousing, break-bulk and onward shipment to destinations throughout Europe. It is not clear from your note whether the country or countries to which you intend to deliver your goods are within the European Union (EU) or not. We will assume that your destination addresses are within the EU. If they are not, we will still be able to assist you, but the process may be different. We can simply execute the process of clearing your goods through customs for Europe, or we can provide a full end-to-end solution. This means we can pick up the job for you, right from the moment you pay your US supplier for the goods. We can even contact the vendor on your behalf and make the pick-up from their premises if you like. We can handle transport to the airport and flights to the UK. We take care of the export customs clearance in the USA, and the import customs clearance for the UK and other destinations within the EU, completing forms, paying duty, VAT and customs fees on your behalf. Then we transport your goods to their destination(s). You actually never even need to see the goods you’re selling. We will need to know your VAT status (ie, are you registered for VAT in the UK?) as this will impact how the VAT component of the process is handled. Import VAT and duty will need to be paid before HMRC releases your goods for onward dispatch. We can advise you on the amount of tax/duty which will be required on the goods entering Europe, enabling you to price appropriately for your customer(s). We can handle this process for you either DDP (Duty Delivered Paid) or DDU (Duty Delivered Unpaid). In the case of DDU, our on-line secure payment system ensures that your customer(s) can pay the required duty quickly and easily, via their PC. In order to quote accurately for the job, we will need the following information:
We’ll also need to know your service requirement – how quickly do you want your shipment moved – so we can select the best mode of transportation to meet your objective. Then we work out a price for the service (each job is different!), give you a quote, and if you’re happy with this, you will set up an account with us, and we take it from there. Coffee Break Story: All Change for a Perfect WorldHere’s another of our ‘coffee break’ stories for your time-out time. Enjoy! It’s usually an oasis of calm, my home-office. Clean, minimalist, not a thing out of place. Not that I’m obsessive compulsive or anything – no! But I like things the way I like them and I have an organised mind and a systematic approach. OK, OK, so I can be a bit fussy. That’s just how I am. Like it or lump it. But this week, all is chaos. I’m trying to set up my new web site, and I can’t think through the noise. That’s to say nothing about the fine layer of plaster dust and wood shavings that seems to have blanketed the whole house. For the last couple of weeks (and it seems like a lifetime) I’ve had Bob the Builder and his young sidekick in (yes, he really is called Bob) (or so he says). And whilst I know they’re doing a good job, and I believe it will all look magnificent in the end, right now, it’s mayhem and noise almost beyond endurance. I know it wasn’t their fault but they even managed to take out a water pipe with an errant nail, which caused a minor tsunami in the hall and led to me having to clamber over piles of sopping wet pulled-up carpet for 3 days. That set us back a bit, in goodwill terms, you could say. So my blood pressure is through the roof and my concentration is shot to ribbons and I’m playing my relaxation CDs and staying off the caffeine – and supping just the odd bottle or three of vin rouge come the evening, to keep me sane. But I was telling you about my web site, wasn’t I? A couple of months ago I went on my holiday-of-a-lifetime, to China. I did the tour – Forbidden City, Great Wall, Terracotta Army – the lot. And I know you’re not supposed to sneak off by yourself, but I managed to meet up with this guy I’d found on the internet. No, it wasn’t that kind of meeting. It was business. He and his small-but-perfectly-formed hillside village assembly line manufacture the best, most amazing, customisable storage thingy for itty-bitty girlie stuff that I’d ever seen. I’d stumbled across it on the internet a few weeks earlier and I’d bought one for myself. I’d showed it to my friends, who all got far more excited about it than anybody has a right to get over, well, a box. But then you know what girls can be like, don’t you? And whilst it’s a box, it’s a box with a whole bunch of whistles and bells. Anyhow, Mr Ho and I had exchanged a few emails and I’d discovered that he was interested in selling through distributors. I was looking for something to complement my current locally made lines and this nicely made, infinitely reorganisable piece of rather clever storage appealed to my sense of order. I drafted a quick marketing plan and grabbed a spare hour to sit down with him in Beijing, and after that, it all came together pretty quickly. So here I am a few weeks later, hardly able to see through the tension headache that has become an almost permanent fixture over the last few days, trying to sort out the finishing touches to the itty-bitty-box web site. Apart from fun and games with html, the marketing plan is working out, and there have been a couple of nice surprises. I’d invested a little in on-line advertising with a few web portals and one or two women’s magazines had picked up the threads, so I’ve even got a couple of feature spots coming up in the next month or two – that’ll be a big boost. I just need to have the web site up and running and that would be fine if it weren’t for the fact that - I admit - I’m being just a bit picky about how it’s put together and, yes, I know, I know, I have changed my mind once or twice about the look... and about the home page.... and the menu items... the text.... the pictures... and the graphics.... I know my web designer silently curses me. I blame the builders. But it’s nearly there, so next, in my perfect world, comes the job of handling all those hundreds (or maybe thousands?!) of orders that are bound to come bouncing in. Each order of course, will be slightly different from the last. That’s the thing about customisable products – no two the same. It’s what makes them great, and, from a distribution point of view, it’s also what makes them a bit of a pain. But there’s money in them there hills, so I’m exploring ways to make it happen, without these itty-bitty boxes taking over my otherwise calm and ordered life. The sawing, banging, hammering and drilling continues, melding not very seamlessly with the dulcet tones of Heart FM – that’s Bob the Builder’s paint-stained transistor, deftly smothering my pan pipes and sounds of nature CDs. They didn’t have a hope really. But you do understand why it’s become so hard to make a decision and then stick to it, don’t you? I am trying to keep my perfectionist streak under control, I really am. I swallow another couple of Aspirin and check into Google. Warehousing, distribution, importing, customs... Lots of firms, but it seems, there’s nobody doing everything I need. Until I get to one - Customs Clearance Ltd. Yes, indeed, it seems Customs Clearance Ltd does what it says on the tin – and I certainly need help with the customs clearance side of things. But they also have links with air freighters worldwide, and they have a warehouse, and they do break-bulk so they can ship my itty-bitty-boxes from China right to the door of each and every customer, and I don’t have to be involved – I don’t even have to see the itty-bitty-boxes, let alone set aside a room at home to store and pack them. Now that’s amazing! I need these guys! I was so thrilled to find them, that when Bob the Builder finally put his head around the door to say “we’re off now”, I nearly hugged him. Nearly. Peace at last, and I gave the guys at CCL a call. They gave me the heads-up on how to go about my shipments and it all seemed pretty reasonable. They filled in some considerable gaps in my knowledge about VAT and duty, which made me think again about pricing, and I must say, I was glad to have that kind of information to hand before go-live. Now I just need to brave one more call to my web designer... and once again, it’s one of those calls that begins with, “I’ve changed my mind about....” |
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| Customs Clearance Limited | |
20th Feb 2009
