Brexit happened and we’ve been out of the EU for a year. Harking back to the lies of 2016 instead of the reality of 2020 is a waste of time.
The UK left the EU at on 31 January 2020. This began a transition period that is set to end on 31 December 2020, during which the UK and EU are negotiating their future relationship. During the transition, the UK remains subject to EU law and remains part of the EU customs union and single market.
The interesting and relevant date isn’t the 31st of January 2020, but the 31st of December 2020.
What’s your point though? The referendum is pointless to bring up because “do you want to leave the single market and customs union, and completely fail to negotiate a replacement?” was not the question on the ballot. If it was, no UK business owner who sells goods to the EU would have voted yes.
I’m not so sure, but I don’t know Julian. Hahahahaha.
Stay stuck in the past then. It helps no one.
Must be about bedtime now @David
I’ll sleep when I’m dead.
How d’ya know that?
He can’t answer, probably still sleeping
This thread got out of hand but always good to talk about Brexit. It’s the new conversational alternative to the weather for anyone from the UK.
I just placed a last minute bulk order, which you might think is silly but especially on H&S here’s the math:
16 bags of H&S from UK store to EU (delivered): £201.80
16 bags of H&S from EU store (delivered): £251.60
Given how fast H&S bags go that should last me a few months! You can however see that the difference isn’t nominal. As I said earlier it’s just about transparency. If someone tells me that getting Huel to the Netherlands is 25% more expensive because of some tax & duties, then at least I can feel like I’m not being price gouged for not living in the UK still.
Bon Jovi can’t be wrong.
Not yet!
The price difference between the EU and UK is already real, and now it seems that it is not longer possible to order from the UK store if you’re living in the EU. Which makes the whole thing a lot more expensive (although the shipping costs are high, sure, but for bulk orders it’s still cheaper).
Huel created a subsidiary in the EU (precisely in Germany) already in 2017 so Brexit is not an issue. Also, they have a fulfilment centre in the EU + at least the RTD (EU variant) is produced in Austria, I am not fully sure about the powders.
According to statements from Huel’s representatives on this forum, Europeans pay more for Huel because of different taxes and currencies in EU countries. About half of the EU have a reduced tax on food, others have a flat VAT tax on everything, it depends on the country. This taxes and currency issue is something that they bring out usually. I understand it to some extent but they have to manage those issues quite ineffectively if the price differences are so massive (in the case of H&S and RTD for example, I would never ever buy those products from the EU store).
Also, the odd thing is that even the countries in the Eurozone are treated differently to some extent. Most Eurozone countries have the same price for Huel while for some reason it is (very slightly) cheaper in the German store.
To sum it up, I can kind of understand some price differences but the differences are too big to make sense and I say this as a person with a business background (I studied business management).
Thanks for the background information. I didn’t know that there was a subsidiary in the EU - where did you get that information? Theoretically taxes should not be too high in Germany, at least they were lowered at the beginning of the pandemic. Maybe this explains the difference to other EU countries. But I still think that it is disproportionately expensive here…compared to the UK store, not in absolute terms.
Regarding taxes, several EU countries lowered taxes during the pandemic. I think that the very minor price difference between Germany the rest of the Eurozone existed already before that but I am not 100% sure.
And yes “disproportionately expensive” sums up the difference between the UK/EU quite well. I can kind of understand the logic behind the price differences when it comes to powders if you combine it with some inefficiencies in management but Hot & Savoury having such a massive price difference doesn’t make sense even if you account for the potential reasons.
I don’t know where H&S is produced but if it is produced in the UK then it might be related to Brexit and the price was hiked up for Europeans already at launch as raising the price of a product soon after launch doesn’t look nice. That is the only hypothetical and plausible reason that came to my mind.
I haven’t dived into the technical details yet but the UK and the EU reached an agreement. That means that there shouldn’t be any customs payments or tariffs for Europeans ordering Huel from the UK website.
If Huel’s European customers are willing to pay in British pounds (while paying a hefty fee for currency exchange to their bank) and for shipping then why should they be forbidden from doing that from this point onward? I haven’t ordered any powder from the UK website myself because the shipping fees are quite high but I’m asking this on behalf of the Dutch and other EU customers who are quite close to the UK and pay less for shipping.
Thanks Karl, it’s appreciated! Perhaps they’ll review the pricing structure now (especially on RTD and H&S).
definitely this. now that the Brexit deal is safe, please allow us to order from the UK site again pretty please?
The Brexit deal means there won’t be tariffs if it is shipped from the UK into Europe but there would be VAT and Customs Duty to be paid as the UK left the customs union. Basically, the deal is just the best worst-case scenario!
Actually this seems to have changed, my current bottles say they were produced in Germany. (EU as well, of course, but just for the books.)
Huel has to pay the destination country’s VAT anyway, that’s how it works in the EU and it will continue like that even after the UK has left. There won’t be any customs duty taxes but just a bit more bureaucracy. Where did you get the information that there will be customs duty taxes on goods shipped from the UK to the EU?