Poor EU pricing now made mandatory?

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#1

Like many Europeans (I’m in NL), I’ve been ordering from the UK store because even with shipping, Huel prices in the UK are significantly lower.

To give you an example at a 2 bag rate, I pay £45 but to order from the EU store would set me back €62. This just isn’t representative, and although frustrating that I had to use another store, I always had the option to continue ordering from the UK. A recent email however informed me that I was being ‘migrated’ to the EU store.

I’ve read some other articles which talk about tax in European countries being the culprit, and I’m sure Brexit is forcing hands somewhere, but I also think that this disparity is just so large and I would like to understand the explanation if possible :slight_smile:

The link for the new pricing structure is here: https://eu.huel.com/pages/your-new-price-structure

Thanks!

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#2

45 pounds is about 50 euros and the shipping cost is 12 euros so that totals to 62 euros which is the same as the EU website. I think the shipping cost is artificially placed at 12€ for that sole reason. So my question is, how do you save money by ordering from the UK store?

#3

Hi Karl,

Shipping to the Netherlands is £5.00 and is a flat fee (eg regardless of how many bags ordered). So this constitutes quite a difference to the usual 10-12 bag I order I place.

#4

Oh okay, then it makes sense if the shipping cost is that low. It’s £12.00 for Northern-Europeans.

#5

Yeah I remember entering in the UK store by mistake and being so happy with the prices… Then I realized my store was the european one, much more expensive (That or paying shipping which made it the same)

#6

When I try to order at the UK store shipping to Germany is not offered as an option. Why?

#7

I think they’re phasing it out which was the main topic of this thread.

I was told by support over email that:

In short, we will no longer be able to ship to EU countries via the UK hence why we would need to move your account to the EU store as your most recent orders have been placed on the UK store to the EU.

I guess it has to do with Brexit or might be because the £5 shipping option doesn’t work for them but all this is speculation. All I know is that my average bag cost has just shot up which is really disappointing, especially for someone who has spent over 5k on Huel over the years.

#8

Major stuff happening at the end of the year. There are already considerable delays at the ports and Eurotunnel as companies scramble to move goods before Brexit. In the EU, importing from and exporting to the UK is about to become more expensive, with a lot more red tape. In the UK we’ll have the same problem when dealing with the EU.

If you order from the EU store, where does it ship from? If it’s still the UK, then Brexit is the reason for the price increase. If it’s any consolation, we’ll probably see price rises in the UK too, if it becomes much more expensive for Huel to import the raw materials. And we’ll all have less money to spend, which is an indirect price increase.

None of this is Huel’s fault, but they have to react to it. And we still don’t know exactly how bad it’s going to be.

#9

looking at their guides - currently only the sunflower powder comes from Eastern Europe - all the other raw materials are from the UK, Canada, China, Pakistan, Malaysia and Indonesia so not sure/hoping there will be any kind of big impact there…

#10

Yeah for Huel I think it’s mostly UK->EU that’ll be severely disrupted. And only temporarily. A good trade deal with our neighbours is an absolute necessity, and if things go tits up in January the UK will have no option but to send some grown ups to handle negotiations.

#11

And honestly I have no problem at all if there are unavoidable costs, but it’s always better to be really clear about why something is happening. Customers are more intelligent (most of the time) than you think!

#12

Man, if that were true, my day to day job would be so much easier :slight_smile:

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#13

Hey Luke, have you checked out this article here?

The article is mainly about v3.0 changes but there’s a section called Global price structure which I think answers most of your questions on why EU pricing is higher than ordering from the UK.

Let me know your specific questions and I’ll ask the right people to see if we can shed some light for you!

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#14

Thanks Tim, yes I was aware of this article but still interesting to re-read the global price structure section. I do understand that there are different costs of doing business worldwide, but my question is more around this recent change stopping orders from the UK. It would be great if you had a more specific answer around that!

#15

Thanks for clarifying. Yes we have to move all existing EU customers who order from the UK to meet new legal restrictions of Brexit. There’s only a few customers who do this so not many will be affected but clearly that doesn’t matter to you and I’m sorry that you’re one of them though.

I’ve chatted with the team and some other reasons for price difference include the differences in taxes for food products in different countries --> different VAT levels depending on country you order from. Also, because everything is so volatile at the moment we have to build in a conversion rate buffer, as our selling prices are in various European currencies, whereas most of our expenses are still in GBP.

Fire away with other questions and I’ll do my best!

#16

Thanks Tim, at least I can blame it on Brexit :wink:

I also appreciate the additional info on the other reasons. It might be worth publishing these in the future because it just takes the pressure off you and increases transparency. Most people are just going to hit that conversion button and not understand the difference.

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#17

Luke didn’t mean that the prices in the EU store increased he just pointed out that the prices in the EU store are a lot more expensive than in the UK store and ‘price shot up’ for him as he had been using the UK store for years although he’s in the EU.
For example 1 bag of H&S is 22.66£/25€ in the EU store.

The prices were higher in the EU store already before Brexit and it has been like this for years although the V3 price increases made it a bit worse for EU customers compared to the UK ones.

As Huel is quite expensive compared to other main EU competitors then me and a few friends just order it in bulk just to get the price down to acceptable levels. Shipping bigger but less frequent orders must be good from a business owner perspective (less costs) so I guess that this is a win-win situation.

#18

Yeah I understood what he meant, I just worded my reply poorly. The lower-price “workaround” of using the UK store is what’s been taken away.

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#19

Of course the brexit isn’t Huel’s fault, but nevertheless it really makes the products significantly less attractive if the same product is offered at a much cheaper price in another country. You immediately get the feeling that this is not fair, that customers are not treated “equal” - at least on a subconscious level.

Isn’t there a solution for this problem like building subsidiaries in the European countries where Huel is produced and offered - at a much cheaper price, as it would be a “European” product? Even if you had the money to do that - would that be possible?

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#20

I’m sure Julian has a plan for this situation, at least he voted for it, and have had 4 years to prepare! :wink: The Founder backed Brexit