Customs bonded warehousing
By offering tailored solutions and hands-on customs guidance, Peters & May empowers businesses to maintain compliance while optimising their supply chains.
Access to customs bonded warehouses is a case in point of where specialisation counts. Peters & May’s 30,000 square foot UK customs bonded warehouse in Eastleigh offers huge benefits to customers exporting and importing goods – not least enabling customers to store goods for extended periods without paying customs duties. This flexibility helps businesses manage inventory during market fluctuations or supply chain disruptions and brings significant cost savings and improved cash flow management.
Peters & May’s warehouse in Steenbergen, Netherlands—a key EU gateway near the port of Rotterdam—will soon receive customs bonded status. This upgrade will provide additional advantages for customers exporting goods from the UK to the EU by streamlining customs procedures, minimising tax administration, and reducing bureaucratic complexities.
The advantages of customs bonded warehousing were clearly illustrated when a major Peters & May client underwent a business reorganisation that led to their warehouse losing its bonded status. As it was impossible for their equipment to be transferred to another location, they faced the prospect of having to bring everything into free circulation resulting in a tax bill of several million pounds.
By working with HMRC to secure bonded status for the warehouse under its own authorization, Peters & May provided its client with a solution that not only addressed potential tax concerns but also leveraged its expertise to offer enhanced inventory control and monitoring. At the same time, the client gained peace of mind, knowing that its high-value equipment was securely stored in a bonded warehouse while fully complying with customs regulations.
Expertise, precision and an adaptive approach
Freight forwarders are increasingly having to contend with complex and evolving customs clearance rules, stricter environmental pressures, and a rapidly shifting trade agreement and tariff landscape. Any importer or exporter could be excused for seeing global logistics management as an increasing daunting proposition.
The reality is that globally, customs clearance has become more fragmented and complex. It is well-known that for any customers dealing with UK to EU, or EU to UK transactions, there are added layers of complexity since Brexit, but Peters & May’s expertise and pre-emptive planning have provided significant benefits to its clients.
Prior to Brexit, Peters & May worked closely with its clients to ensure they and their suppliers complied with new customs rules from day one. The company expanded and trained its customs team to manage shipments to and from the EU efficiently in order to minimise disruptions to client’s supply chains. With expertise in handling complex imports and exports across all UK ports and throughout the EU via a trusted agent network, Peters & May remains proactive in assessing regulatory changes and helping their clients adapt to such changes, just as they did during Brexit.
Keeping track of time, and a sense of value
For specialist freight forwarding – where items transported are often unconventional, delicate or time-sensitive – the level of complexity can often rise as the stakes increase, adding to the risk of error, delay, and potential for spiralling costs. Given the risks, many importers and exporters may be surprised to learn that they bear ultimate responsibility for the accuracy of the data submitted to customs, often unaware of their obligations and liabilities.
The specialist freight forwarding market requires a degree of consultancy and a hands-on approach, as often a one way fits all approach does not work. In taking a consultative approach, and choosing to collaborate with Peters & May, as a specialist forwarder with warehouse access and in-house customs expertise, customers are deciding to focus on value, not cost, while gaining more control over the logistics process.