Law / Any experience about importing goods to the UK from Poland? [20]

I import from pl myself and to be honest what youre trying to do has been tried and done by lots of others before you

the problems you will face are which items to buy, where to buy from, who to sell to and at what price...even today i was talkin to a guy who wants to do it.

First you will need to pay for the goods yourself, i doubt any shop would pay upfront for a guy to bring them in a van... I pay proforma but then i use an established company and a proper spedition firm with all relevent CMR docs

you will not be able to bring back the big money spinners, alcohol and fags, you will no doubt get pulled at dover in a normal white van then checked

also there are cash and carries already all over the uk selling polish goods, they have everything under one roof not to mention buying power so shops will know they can rely on them for stock whereas you may only have a few bits

I agree you could be cheaper but then youd only get £3-4k worth of stock in a sprinter sized van...is it worth the outlay, the trouble of selling it etc for the minimal margins u may make

5 years ago people were making shedloads of money bringin food and drink over in vans cos pl food was new to the uk and there werent so many wholesalers in the uk. I wish i started it then!

if you have any mates with shops in the uk you may be able to buy on their behalf i guess

you will also be paying pl vat at on your purchases cos chances are u dont have a foreign vat number so you will buy something for say 40p + vat @ 22% wheres i will buy it vat free and have a pallet delivered to the uk for 60 euros. Would you still be cheaper? even if you are is it worth the hassle?

I buy free of vat from pl as i have a uk limited company and a uk vat number, i fly out every few weeks for a day or so pick an order and get it delivered. Obviously not every buyer does that. You will already be 22% more expensive after you pay vat then u will need to cover your diesel, ferry, profit etc so you may need to markup your goods by say 70% at which price you will be about the same as one of the uk wholesalers

YOu may get lucky and find a shop willing to work with you

the most expensive goods in the uk at the moment which hardly anybody is supplying are magazines and medicines...u need a lot of money and a good network to sell them tho

also there are spedition websites where people are advertising return loads from pl to uk everyday

If u need any more info let me know

it may be worth your while going into some shops and asking them but im sure theyd wanna see a price list first and even after youve brought the goods into the uk theres no guarantee theyd buy them!

hope you can understand all that its a bit of a mess, im not trying to put u off just giving u a insight from the other side...hope it works for u watever u do