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Import and Export Projects

Successfully Implemented
Projects

Since starting ICS Global, I've worked on a large variety of projects that have been successfully implemented and help to showcase my expertise within the industry of international trade.

I've implemented projects relating to Brexit, customs and tax, international shipping, distribution, pharmaceuticals and more.  Read on to see the wide range of projects I've been involved in and how they were brought to completion successfully. 
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Brexit & Post-Brexit

Overview. Developed contingency plans to ensure that customers’ products were delivered correctly after 1 January 2021. Significant changes have occurred after the UK left the EU. All UK businesses are required to provide Customs documentation for products exported to, or imported from the EU, even with the new ‘EU Deal’ on Brexit. 


Authorised Economic Operator (AEO). Worked with a UK importer to identify the benefits of AEO after Brexit and highlighted that AEO accredited companies will have their goods cleared through Customs' controls quicker than goods for non-AEO accredited companies. AEO would also give them easier access to customs procedures such as Inward/Outward Processing Relief.


We provide consultancy services to assist you with achieving AEO status.


Documentation. As part of our customer services, we have provided the necessary Customs documentation to comply with the new regulations.


Customs Declarations. As specialists, we have assisted our clients with their Customs Declarations and Safety and Security Declarations. HMRC do not recommend that businesses attempt to complete customs declarations themselves unless they have the specialist skills. This process is very time consuming, and businesses should not underestimate how much time and effort it will take.


Supply Chain. We have developed new supply chain solutions to support our clients’ shipments into and out of the EU. This involved the management of both physical and information flows relating to a wide assortment of products, tracking them from the point of their origin and until they reach the end customer destination. Read more....

Northern Ireland. Developed and implemented solutions for moving customers’ products between Great Britain and Northern Ireland which complied with the Northern Ireland protocol agreed in October 2019. Products crossing the Irish Sea are required to demonstrate compliance with the new measures. This means that new Customs and regulatory paperwork, checks and processes were required on goods entering Northern Ireland from Great Britain from 1 January 2021. 
 
Commodity Codes. We have classified our clients’ products using the correct commodity codes to ensure that the correct duties and taxes are stated on the customs declarations.

Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. The movement of products between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland should not require any new Customs declarations, paperwork, duty tariffs, quotas or checks on rules of origin. 

Duty Deferment Accounts. We have assisted a number of our clients in setting up Duty Deferment Accounts (DDA), so that they can delay paying most customs and tax charges when importing goods. 

UK Products. With the recent growth in demand for UK products, we have supported companies with export sales outside the EU, whilst ensuring full export trade compliance. 
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Warehousing

Beer, wines and spirits Bonded Distribution Centre. Working for one of the big four supermarkets, project managed the closure of a 3PL Excise Bonded warehouse and the implementation of in-house Excise Bonded distribution centres resulting in improved services levels, better inventory controls, reduced costs and increased duty-suspension, with annual savings of £5.4m.

Bonded Warehouse solution in Peru. Customer within the mining industry required imported products at short notice. Reduced supply chain lead-times by storing inventory in a bonded warehouse solution in Lima, Peru. The costs were offset by the suspension of duties and taxes until the products were required by the customer.

Customs Warehousing. Working for one of the big four UK supermarkets, developed and implemented Customs Warehousing within 19 Distribution Centres for electrical and household products, resulting in savings of £5.5m per annum.

Bonded Logistics Park solution within China. A Customer manufacturing within a Bonded Logistics Park in Shanghai required imported components readily available within China. Contracted a 3PL warehouse solution within the same Bonded Logistics Park as the customer’s factories. Implemented processes to receive vendor deliveries from 5 countries in compliance with China Customs. Improved stock availability for the customers, maintained QA/QC standards, reduced delays to the manufacturing process and costs were offset by not paying any duties or taxes within China.

Read more about this warehouse solution >>


Consolidation Warehouse. UK e-commerce retailer required a location to consolidated shipments to meet customer demand and to reduce pressure on their UK warehouses. The solution was to implement a bonded warehouse solution in Shenzhen, China. The warehouse services covered receiving consignments from various suppliers, storage, product labelling, pre-retail processing services, pick and pack to meet demand, packaging, sea container fill and export formalities.

Read more about consolidation warehousing >>

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Low Cost Country Sourcing

Scoping Document. Scoped an import project to evaluate any potential risk and overseas business opportunities for sourcing Own Brand / Private Label products from Low Cost Countries. The scoping document highlighted that control over production costs and pricing, would enable the company to control the level of profitability its products provided.

Sourcing Offices. Project managed the implementation of Buying / Sourcing Offices in Asia to improve margins by removing third party agents and developing sourcing strategies direct with the manufactures. 
Own Brand / Private Label / OEM / Global Sourcing. Developed and implemented Own Brand / Private Label / OEM strategies via Low Cost Country Sourcing. These programmes resulted in new product ranges, an alternative price offering to brand products, robust supply chains, compliant imports, low landed cost reporting and increased margins, resulting in £14m of savings.
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Customs and Tax

Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (C-TPAT). Worked closely with U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to develop, maintain and manage the highest security standards, procedures and processes within our international supply chains and at thirteen distribution centres. CBP granted C-TPAT Tier 3 status resulting in annual importing cost savings.

Product Classification. Successfully challenged the U.S. Department of Commerce concerning Anti-Dumping Duty (ADD) and Countervailing Duty (CVD) scope rulings and avoided increased duty costs.

Duty Audit. Detailed audit of a company’s imported product valuations, descriptions and classifications identified overpayments of import duty, these were declared to Customs and the overpaid duty was claimed back. 

Excise Bonded Warehouse. Developed and implemented a fully compliant UK Customs & Excise CFSP solution for Customs / Excise Bonded Warehousing for wine imports from South America, resulting in reduce duty exposure and increase cash flow.
Transfer Pricing. Implemented a Transfer Pricing Study for a matrix organisation, as a transfer price that may be acceptable to the income tax authorities may not be acceptable to the customs authorities. Established a compliant Transfer Pricing policy between related companies within the group which was acceptable for the purposes of customs valuation.

Excise Bonded Warehouse. Working with one of the big four supermarkets, developed and implemented two in-house excise bonded distribution centres, managed the daily operations and W1 excise warehouse returns to HMRC. Dramatically improved services levels, provided better inventory controls, reduced costs and increased duty-suspension, with annual savings of £5.4m.

Union Customs Code. Developed strategies and processes to ensure that a UK / EU business was fully compliant with the new Union Customs Code changes that commenced on 1 May 2016. These were the biggest changes to UK/EU Customs Regulations in 20 Years.
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International Shipping

Intermodal Solutions. Implemented a fully integrated air, sea, sea/air, road, rail, warehouse and bonded warehouse solution for an international company trading in 13 countries.

Optimisation. Reviewed the company’s sea container utilisation and identified poor sea container fills, high usage of Less than Container Loads (LCLs) and incorrect container size usage. Implemented a cost-effective shipping strategy which involved forward planning production and purchase orders to maximise container fills. The strategy also reduced the use of LCL containers, reduced the use of 20ft containers, increased the use of 40ft high cube and 45ft containers resulting in reduced international shipping costs.   

Consolidation. UK company purchased products from multiple suppliers across Asia, shipped products in Less than Container Loads (LCLs). This was resulting in high shipping costs / landed costs and reduced margins. The solution was the use of sites in Asia to consolidate cargo from multiple suppliers into one shipping container, therefore maximising sea container fills, reducing shipping costs and increasing margins.

Sea-Air Freight. UK fashion clothing company found shipping products from Asia by sea took too long and shipping the same products by air was too expensive. The solution was to combined benefits of Sea-Air traffic and obtain the right balance between cost and time. The solution involved shipping Cargo from Asia to Dubai by sea and then by air from Dubai to London.


End-to-end Management. A UK company’s international supply chains had become complex and fragmented. Following a review of the end-to-end supply chains, we developed and implemented solutions to centralise the global supply chain, leverage volumes and reduce costs, whilst ensuring full international trade compliance.


Supply Chain Design. Developed and executed a complex global supply chain strategy to support all purchasing activities arising from low-cost counties via 450 international routes, and improved margins.

Read more about supply chain management >>

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Intermodal

Intermodal Solution. US business required assistance to deal with peak season DC intake and to spread sea container deliveries throughout the week, whilst optimising the supply chain. The solution was to route containers from China into the Port of Vancouver, use rail from Vancouver to Chicago, utilise a deconsolidation warehouse, pick and pack to order and deliver product via backhaul or contracted trucking.  
Intermodal Freight Transport. Implemented a North American intermodal solution to remove costs by reducing cargo handling, reducing damage / loss and allowing cargo to be transported faster. On arrival at the port, sea containers were shipped by rail to a railhead near to the end destination and then containers moved the final few miles by truck. This reduced costs against end-to-end road trucking.
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Distribution

Distribution. UK fashion importer was using the services of six 3PL warehouses resulting in fragmented ranges across multiple sites, fulfilment of an individual order from multiple sites and increased distribution costs. The solution was to consolidate the inventory into one warehouse location and renegotiate a new 3PL contract (based on the leverage volume) to cover receipt, QC, storage, pick & pack, pre-retail services, dispatch and customer delivery.   
UK Distribution. Scoped and managed a 3-year project to achieve ‘total traceability’ for the movement of exam/test papers, completed scripts and coursework between stakeholders.
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Software Solutions

Software Solutions. Scoped and implemented software solutions to manage products through the end-to-end supply chain, with software providers such as SAP, GT Nexus, Amber Road, TradeCard and Integration Point. 


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Pharmaceutical

Designed and implemented a U.S. compliance programme to meet the legal and regulatory requirements of government agencies, such as The Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Centre for Biodiversity and Environment Research (CBER), United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

Prepared and submitted a detailed argument to challenge the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER) import requirements, which were contradictory and not in accordance with the regulations stated in the U.S. Federal Register. The intended outcome was to obtain acceptance of a new fully compliant end-to-end process which reduced clearance times, reduced unnecessary documentation and ensured earlier product release to the U.S. market.
Implemented an import-for-export (IFE) process to allow the importation of non-compliant products into the USA for further processing at the Client’s U.S. manufacturing site under U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) control. Once the products had been processed, they were shipped to various export markets outside the USA in accordance with the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FFDCA).

Implemented complex import/export requirements across the globe to enable delivery of vaccine products and intermediates from the Seqirus manufacturing sites and Contract Manufacturing Organisations to end customers.

Implemented global cold chain supply chain solutions with 3rd party logistics providers.
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