Importing wine to the UK and Ireland

jackiebaron

I have recently gained access to a very large supply of Italian wine. It is very good (extremely dry) and was wondering how I would go about selling it in the UK or Ireland. My supplier is in Germany. If I mentioned that I could procure it for 1.5 euros per bottle, what would be a resonable price to sell it at in order to turn a profit and obviously cover shipping costs and surcharges(taxes)?

Thnx

maxer68

jackiebaron wrote: »

I have recently gained access to a very large supply of Italian wine. It is very good (extremely dry) and was wondering how I would go about selling it in the UK or Ireland. My supplier is in Germany. If I mentioned that I could procure it for 1.5 euros per bottle, what would be a resonable price to sell it at in order to turn a profit and obviously cover shipping costs and surcharges(taxes)?

Thnx

1.50 a bottle + shipping costs + duty (about 1.60 a bottle I think) + secure storage + shipping to retailer.

And then competing with so many established importers, tesco, O'briens & Dunnes.

I hate to say, but having just one or two wines to sell in a crowded market, no chance.

I can get good italian wine for €63 +vat / case, good prosecco for €73+vat a case. Delivered to my door with minimum just 12 cases.

The italian wholesalers have drinkable pinot grigio for €5 a bottle, lidl & aldi the same.

Moo1

The only way you may make money on this is a bulk one off shipment to a wholesaler with retail affiliates and remember they will be expecting 20% margin mimimum. I also hate to say Italy is getting crowded in the wine sector and AUP is falling whilst volumes are rising very like New Zealand. Be sure the wines are consumer relevant also Pinot grigio, valpolicella etc.
Unless you have other product to support your business i would stay away wine is very difficult to make a profit off now.

antoinolachtnai

I looked at this a few years ago. At the time, marks and Spencer had a perfectly adequate prose co or cava on the shelves for around 7 euros a bottle.

It may be that your product is better quality than theirs but if you do not clearly position and promote your product as such you will not be able to attract the proper premium.

evoke

you can always go around to restaurants and pubs selling the wine.

maxer68

evoke wrote: »

you can always go around to restaurants and pubs selling the wine.

Every restaurant / pub would have their suppliers and no good business would open an account just for the supply of one type of wine.

evoke

a restaurant does not have to setup a supplier account with jackiebaron. if the restaurtant liked his wine they could just buy a crate. cash would just change hands.

He could be a wine sales person. Would he be allowed to this? Is there any regulation on this kind of transaction?

antoinolachtnai

If OP is good enough at sales to make money selling wine by the case to cash only customers then he should get a job doing that. Save him taking the risk of importing his own product.

maxer68

evoke wrote: »

a restaurant does not have to setup a supplier account with jackiebaron. if the restaurtant liked his wine they could just buy a crate. cash would just change hands.

He could be a wine sales person. Would he be allowed to this? Is there any regulation on this kind of transaction?

The OP's wine is a €1.50 at source cost product, so its a fairly basic Italian Grillo or similar. Hundreds of them on the market and every wine merchant has a few in their list.

Of course a restaurant doesn't have to set up an account, but they will need to have a new supplier account set up on their account system, its another phone call to take each week, another item for the checklist etce tc. Jus for one bottle of wine??? - Nope, from a business perspective, it simply won't work or be i any way cost effective.

onemanband

An important point to note here is that you will be required to pay the excise duty AND VAT on this wine before is leaves Italy. The documents showing that these taxes are paid must accompany the goods. This very often makes the cash flow of doing such deals prohibitive.

For example if you are buying 10k bottles of wine at €1.50 each. You will probably have to pay circa €2.5 per bottle in excise and VAT before the wine leaves. For 10K this would be an upfront investement of €40k. You cannot reclaim this excise and VAT if the stuff does not sell.

If you selling the wine wholesale for let's say €5 per bottle, you will need to sell 8k just to recover your expenses (not including transport). The last 2k is where the profit is.

You need to be sure you can sell it all (long before the wine begins to spoil)

Also need to remember that you are up against the major retailers, the northern guys with significantly less duty and VAT and the growing hordes of people importing wine from France etc for their own consumption.

Also you would find that only a certain percentage of the population will look to buy Italian (even though it love it personally).

Speaking from personal experience I would give this opportunity a miss.

maxer68

onemanband wrote: »

An important point to note here is that you will be required to pay the excise duty AND VAT on this wine before is leaves Italy. The documents showing that these taxes are paid must accompany the goods. This very often makes the cash flow of doing such deals prohibitive.

.

For small quantites, yes, for larger quantities you bring it into a bonded warehouse and duty is payable upon dispatch from the warehouse. (Masterlink in Parkwest is a bonded warehouse & delivery service many wine importers use)

Assuming the op is vat registered, no vat is payable as its an intra eu transaction. He does charge vat on his sales though.

onemanband

maxer68 wrote: »

For small quantites, yes, for larger quantities you bring it into a bonded warehouse and duty is payable upon dispatch from the warehouse. (Masterlink in Parkwest is a bonded warehouse & delivery service many wine importers use)

Assuming the op is vat registered, no vat is payable as its an intra eu transaction. He does charge vat on his sales though.

Sorry but this is not correct. VAT on alcohol imports is not treated the same way as other products. Unless you have a bonded facility yourself (not 3rd party) you must pay the VAT and excise duty before it leaves whatever EU country is the destiniation country. The goods will be seized by customs at Rosslare without documentation from revenue showing the duty and VAT have been paid in advance. You cannot defer paying the excise and Duty on the wine unless it is going to your own bonded warehouse. You would need to show revenue an annual sales volume in the millions of euro before you can apply to have your own bonded warehouse.

I have imported and sold circa 20k bottles of wine in the last year. I am VAT registered and have a substantial distribution facilty. Trust me you have to pay the excise and VAT in advance and it makes a fundemental difference to the business model. I have decided to exit this particular business despite having access to very good quality wines at between €2-€5 cost.