Europa secures Customs Warehouse Authorisation

Europa Warehouse in Corby which was constructed and commissioned at the height of the pandemic, is based at Midlands Logistics Park. It has achieved Customs Warehouse Authorisation by HMRC, marking the next major step in its investment programme to better support the pain points of traditional and ecommerce retailers.

This latest authorisation means that its facility is authorised to store general goods that are subject to customs and VAT. This, coupled with, Europa's 'wet bond' accreditation provides a real advantage for customers managing tight cashflows, allowing them to suspend customs, excise and VAT payments until their goods are sold.

Dionne Redpath, Head of Warehouse Division and COO of Europa Worldwide Group, comments: “With the current economic headwind putting strain on ecommerce, retailers and wholesalers everywhere, many of our customers are managing tight cashflows. This is pain point we have a long-held ambition to solve.

“Customs Bonded Warehousing can assist, allowing traders to import goods into the UK, hold them in the Bonded Warehouse without having to outlay Duty and VAT until goods have been sold and dispatched. For example, if an importer purchases gym equipment which attracts four per cent duty, the duty and VAT will be suspended until the importer sells the cargo in the UK.

“This is a real cashflow benefit because it means goods can be stored ahead of seasonal peaks without our warehouse customers footing heavy duty costs immediately. Instead, businesses can accurately anticipate supply and demand, while only paying necessary duties on items that leave the warehouse, typically after they have been sold.”

In addition to the Corby site Europa’s portfolio of warehouses includes Dartford, and Birmingham and offers over one million sq. ft combined of dedicated warehouse and logistics space and are now fully authorised customs warehouses. The most recent investments within the warehouse division have been the construction of the £60m Corby warehouse, which is capable of storing up to 100,000 pallets and processes up to 50,000 units of goods per day through its £11m automation system.

Europa Warehouse has operated Wet Bonds at each of its sites for some time, giving importers or sellers of alcohol the ability to delay costly excise duties until items are picked for sale and dispatch. The UK’s leading gin subscription box, Craft Gin Club, has benefited from this since its Dragon’s Den success in 2016, and continues to utilise Europa’s bonded infrastructure for forecasting supply and demand.

The Customs Warehouse Authorisation has been awarded to Europa following an extensive auditing programme with HMRC, who evaluated the infrastructure and security in place for each site. This was co-ordinated with operational teams across the Group, including facilities, project management and customs compliance teams.

Dionne continued: “Obtaining any accreditation is tough but those awarded by HMRC are especially rigorous, for obvious reasons. The HMRC officers completing the audits gave us positive feedback and, as a result, we're really pleased to be able to extend our service offering beyond excise goods in this regard”.

Europa Warehouse is part of Europa Worldwide Group, an ambitious independent logistics operator with two other divisions, Europa Road and Europa Air & Sea. The company has been featured in The Sunday Times Top Track 250 for three years. Europa has invested £5 million in its innovative market-leading product, Europa Flow, providing a frictionless flow of goods between the EU and the UK post Brexit.

The group employs over 1,400 people with 29 international sites in the UK, the Republic of Ireland, Europe, Hong Kong, China and the UAE. The global operator recently reported a record turnover of £302m for the last 12 months, as of August 2022, and remains on track with its ambitious investment programme.