How we become
your exporter
A supplier who only sells ex works is not refusing to trade with you. They are refusing to take on export responsibility. We take it instead.
Who this is for
- A buyer who has found the right product abroad, and a supplier who will not ship beyond their own gate.
- A manufacturer with demand in another market, no customs capability, and no wish to build one.
- A business that wants to sell in a market where it has no legal establishment.
- A company that has been quoted by four different providers for one consignment and cannot get a single delivered price.
The sequence
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Origin country
Your supplier
Sells ex works, exactly as to a domestic customer.
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Origin country
We buy
In their currency, on their terms. We take title to the goods.
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Origin country
We export
Export declaration, health certificate and origin, under our own registration.
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Across the border
We move it
Road, sea, air or rail, temperature controlled where the goods need it.
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Destination
We import
Import declaration, prior notification, border control post, duty and VAT.
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Your premises
It arrives
One invoice at a delivered price. Nothing left for you to do.
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Feasibility
We establish that the operation is legal and workable before money moves: establishment approval at origin, product eligibility at destination, customs classification, duty rate, certificates required, and any point where the goods could be held. You receive a written report and a go or no-go. Fees and turnaround.
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Purchase ex works, or FCA
We buy the goods from your supplier and take title. They invoice us in their own country, in their own currency, on the terms they already use domestically. Nothing about their process changes.
Which term we buy on depends on where the goods start.
From the United Kingdom, the European Union or the United States, we buy ex works. We are established in all three, so we hold the export registration and we file the declaration ourselves. This is the case the business was built for, and the one your supplier is refusing.
From anywhere else, we buy FCA. The supplier loads and clears the goods for export in their own country. We are not established there, so we do not sign a declaration in a jurisdiction where we hold no registration and no staff, and we do not advise on that country's export law. That is the supplier's side.
Ours is everything after loading, and it is the side that decides whether the deal works: freight, the import declaration, duty and import VAT, and delivery to your door. Because we import into our own market, we can tell you before you buy whether the product may enter at all, what it classifies as, what duty it will actually pay, whether a trade agreement gives a preferential rate, and which documents the import requires. On the destination you get a straight go or no-go.
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Export
We file the export declaration under our own registration in that country. We obtain the export health certificate where the goods are of animal origin, the certificate of origin, and any phytosanitary or specific documentation the destination requires.
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Preferential origin
Where a trade agreement gives a reduced or zero duty rate, we certify the origin. Our REX registration lets us do this at any consignment value — an unregistered exporter can only self-certify up to €6,000, above which the goods pay the full rate.
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Transport
Road, sea, air or rail, ambient or temperature controlled, according to the product. We operate a refrigerated France–UK lane and buy the rest through our own carrier network.
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Import
We file the import declaration at destination, submit the prior notification, and book the border control post inspection where the goods require one. Duty and import VAT are settled under our registration.
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Delivery
To your warehouse, your store, your distribution centre, or straight to your own customer. Where our entity is established in your country, we invoice you domestically — no import formalities of your own, one invoice, a delivered price.
The terms we sell on
| Incoterm | What is included | Typical use |
|---|---|---|
| CFR | Export clearance, main carriage to the named port | Sea freight where you insure and clear |
| CIF | As CFR, plus marine insurance | Sea freight where you clear at destination |
| DAP | Everything up to unloading at your address, both customs clearances handled | The usual choice — one delivered price |
Under DAP the buyer is normally the importer of record. Where you have no establishment or registration in the destination country, we import in our own name and sell you the goods domestically instead. Which of the two applies is set out in the feasibility report before you commit.
Routes
Three established entities — United Kingdom, Europe, United States. Each can act as the declared exporter or importer in its own jurisdiction, and that is what opens a route. Export from any of the three to anywhere in the world, and import into any of the three from anywhere in the world. In practice it means we can become your supplier at home while sourcing wherever the product is made.
| From | To | Our role |
|---|---|---|
| United Kingdom | European Union | UK exporter and EU importer |
| European Union | United Kingdom | EU exporter under REX, UK importer |
| UK or EU | United States | Exporter, with our US entity receiving |
| UK or EU | Middle East | Exporter, with halal certification and legalised documents |
| United States | European Union | US exporter, EU importer |
| United States | United Kingdom | US exporter, UK importer |
| United States | Middle East | US exporter, with halal certification and legalised documents |
| UK, EU or US | Rest of world | We buy EXW and export; you import, and you specify the documents |
| Rest of world | UK, EU or US | We buy FCA — the supplier exports; we import and become your domestic supplier |
The table shows the lanes we run most often, not the limit of what we do. The three bases are what matter: from any of them we can export to any destination that will accept the goods, and into any of them we can import from any origin that can supply them. Ask about a route that is not listed.
End to end, and where it stops
Where the destination is one of our three jurisdictions — the United Kingdom, the European Union or the United States — we run the consignment end to end. We are established there, so we file the import declaration, settle duty and import VAT, and deliver to your address. One contract, one delivered price.
Beyond those three we act as exporter of record only, and the division of work changes.
Into a third country you remain the importer of record. We are not established there, we hold no registration there, and we do not advise on its import rules — no honest operator can keep current with every customs regime in the world, and we will not pretend to.
Sanctions apply throughout, in both directions. We do not handle goods originating in or destined for any country or territory under trade embargo or comprehensive sanctions in the United Kingdom, the European Union or the United States. Because we hold entities in all three, a restriction imposed by any one of them applies to all of our work.
So you tell us what your authority requires: the health certificate model, the certificate of origin, the legalisation, the product registration, the language of the documents. We obtain all of it at origin and export accordingly. Tell us early. Several of these documents are issued before dispatch and cannot be granted once the goods have left.
Common questions
Does my supplier have to do anything differently?
No. They sell ex works to a buyer established in their own country, invoice in their own currency, and use the terms they already use domestically. They file no declaration and register for nothing.
Who is the importer of record at destination?
Under DAP the buyer normally is. Where you have no establishment or registration in the destination country, we import in our own name and sell you the goods domestically instead. Which of the two applies is set out in the feasibility report before you commit.
Can you handle chilled and frozen goods?
Yes. We operate a refrigerated France–UK lane and buy other temperature-controlled capacity through our own carrier network. Temperature is maintained and recorded from loading to delivery, because a break in the cold chain can void a health certificate.
My supplier can sell FCA rather than ex works — do you still help?
Yes. Where the goods start in the United Kingdom, the European Union or the United States we buy ex works, because we are established there and can file the export declaration ourselves. From any other origin we buy FCA, so the supplier clears the goods for export in their own country. We do not take export responsibility in a jurisdiction where we hold no registration and no staff, and we would rather say so than pretend otherwise. From the moment the goods are loaded the consignment is ours: freight, import, duty and delivery to your door.
What will you not handle?
Goods subject to excise duty, export licensing or strategic control: alcohol, tobacco, weapons and ammunition, dual-use items, drug precursors and species listed under CITES. We also decline operations where the origin establishment is not approved for the destination and no alternative source can be found.