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Taking english food/products to france


bettyboop

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Can anyone help,who has already done this?

If you were to set up an english food shop/market stall in france, how do you import the goods ie what import duties are applicable?? have tried googling the subject, but not easy.

Any links would be helpful.

ta in advance
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Probably not what you want to hear but the two English food shops I have observed close to me have both closed. Problem there were not enough 'English products' for a full shopping trip nor enough variety to make a special visit worthwhile. Low turnover also meant that sell-by dates were often exceeded on certain perishable products which put customers off........

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On the contrary, all research/knowledge is invaluable.

Another question: if you do purchase items in uk in sterling and then sell in france, how would you go about showing those invoices for taxation purposes, say under AE regime

Thanks everyone for your input
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Coops is right. Under AE you wouldn't worry about what currency you buy stock in because that isn't part of the tax & cotisation calculation (although you still need to keep records in case of a control).

Whether you could make a living working within the AE rules on importing inherently low-value items is something I'd be very wary about.

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I think I would be very wary about importing 'English' foods to France. There are some companys who are able to deliver UK food from major suppliers at a very competative price. I have to admit I never used them so cannot vouch for them, but I do know of people who have bulk buyed to offset the cost of delivery.

When I have seen 'English food' I have not bought anything as. the price seemed to be too expensive.

I tended to rely on Family and Friends, or adapted my palate to suit my new life.

Sorry to be negative, but fore-warned is fore-armed.

 

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A friend of ours (french friend) tried to do the same thing down here. It didn't work out so well as she couldn't shift the stuff. The supermarkets tend to sell those english luxuries that people miss. Surfice to say, I'm still ploughing through the bottles of HP sauce she gave me when she got fed up (best before date Oct 2007).

What were you thinking of importing? You would probably have a better chance of success if you imported Wickes one coat plaster, decent paint and rolls of insulation. 

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We use a courier company here on a semi regular basis to bring foodstuffs etc from the UK. They charge 20% + vat of the total cost as a delivery fee. As a large family we find that even allowing for the delivery charge we still save money on things such as shower gel and deodorant which are very expensive here.

In addition we use Amazon UK for all manner of things - clothes, tools, car parts which are so much cheaper than the same products here. Due to the above we no longer use the local English shop so I would caution anyone thinking about opening one here.
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[quote user="bettyboop"]I suppose AE is more suited to B&B or rentals or maybe not??[/quote]I would guess more suited to a service based business than a retail one, at the least.

For example.  I have a friend here who is a registered artisan under AE.  He did some work for us and bought the materials from a local supplier and charged us cost price.   Nice for us.  However, when he came to doing his taxes he discovered that all the stuff he bought on our behalf got charged against his cotis so he took a massive hit.  After that, we bought the stuff and he just did the work, then he just paid cotis on his hourly rate.  Hope that explains my point a bit.

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Ive sometimes used the shop that Wooly gave you details of .    They have events like coffee mornings and book swaps that get the punters in,   We are on their emailing list and they let us know when new stuff is in and when the events are .

They always seem do do a roaring trade in kittens when I  go . My Husband is under orders to check my ;pockets and bag before we leave !!!.

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No one has mentioned that all imported foodstuffs have to be re-labelled in french onthem as is the same in the UK for foreign imported food items.Our local Super U's all sell british stuff and have the labels stuck on them.
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