SGS: Brokerage and TransitNet

Longstanding BVAA member SGS United Kingdom is proud to announce the establishment of customs brokerage services in the United Kingdom. With the UK’s current relationship with the EU set to change dramatically in January 2021, businesses who move goods between the two territories will encounter customs requirements in these trades from January onwards. Following acquisitions and an enhancement of existing teams, SGS United Kingdom is uniquely placed to assist businesses through the delivery of a range of services including customs brokerage (declarations of imports and exports to HMRC) and TransitNet (proprietary software allowing those sending shipments through customs territories en route to final destination to do so without tying up cash and encountering unnecessary customs delays).

SGS Customs Services is a new element in the group in the UK, but builds on many decades of experience around the business, which benefits from over 87k employees in 130+ countries. TransitNet is already operational in 20+ countries, with 200+ FTE’s around Europe. Brokerage is also an area where the group has pedigree, following the acquisition of SGS Maco, a Netherlands based broker with operations in a number of EU markets, and has been working intensively with growing teams based around the UK, with a national offering benefiting from international backing.

This new operation intends to provide import and export support to thousands of businesses, and is onboarding clients now to ensure minimal disruption and price certainty in a period of unprecedented turbulence.

Brian Dakers, Business Development Manager of eCustoms, said “UK Customs’ figures anticipate 185k VAT registered businesses will encounter customs activity in their imports and exports once we leave the EU properly. The impact on trading relationships will be significant. While we are under no illusions as to the size of the challenge, we have worked hard throughout the last few years to prepare, and anticipate providing significant weight in support of UK/EU trade, with the aim of removing friction wherever possible. With an additional 200m declarations of imports and exports required, the task requires significant additional labour. That said, we are using our knowledge of technology to reduce repetitive data entry wherever possible, and implementing a phased approach with all clients onboarded, to ensure maximum efficiency from all relationships. We are actively seeking conversations with those looing to bring certainty to their goods movements, and would invite companies with apprehension to discuss their situation with us.”

To find out more, email brokerage.uk@sgs.com  

Published: 29th October 2020