china

[hedgerow pete]

do you know the idea of just driving to poland or denmark and filling a transit van up with glass jars and driving them back seems so much easier. in the last 16 years we have bean carrying bee keeping and wine making gear back from france etc we have never been stopped or charged with any vat.

just in case your wondering here are the last four van loads

1250kg of bees wax foundation, saving on uk shop price including collection costs 57%

160 national supers, 40 national deep droods, and fourty roofs and floors and frames
saving on uk shop prices including collection costs 75%

6,000 national frames sn1 and 12 by 14inc wax foundation sheets, saving on uk cost inc collection cost 45%

four stainless extractors three un cappers and 5,000 jars and lids, savings on uk shop prices inc collection costs 70% on equipment 50 % on glass jars

when we came through dover with the wax sheets the customs guy stopped us look in the back of the van said what is it , we told him and since its not drink, fags or drugs and its for personal use we went straight through and out.

its looking to me that unless i can get the order over the 10,000 jar size the "extras" are killing the product single price where as £150 of diesel gets me to poland with a transit van and back and with £50 for the ferry on top i think the drive to lysons is on the cards, and i think i will start to google european glass jam jar makers too. the whole chinise think is getting to out of hand to my mind , the risks are starting to build up past peters levels.

 

[Hombre]

No one said that that it would be cheap to import like the big boys, but you have to be very small and bring it in by post under the allowance, or very large to defray the costs to make it remain relatively cheap.

 

[hedgerow pete]

i had not realized the extra costs involved, it was an eye opener to say the least!!

i have always found that dover or newcastle dock customs are to busy looking for beer and fags rather than little people bringing in small amounts for own use

 

[drstitson]

pete - your 6 colonies seem to be burning their way through a hell of a lot of consumables - although likewise requiring a serious number of bottles for honey crop!!!!

 

[wojciech]

Importing BS National Eqyipment

do you know the idea of just driving to poland or denmark and filling a transit van up with glass jars and driving them back seems so much easier. in the last 16 years we have bean carrying bee keeping and wine making gear back from france etc we have never been stopped or charged with any vat.

just in case your wondering here are the last four van loads

1250kg of bees wax foundation, saving on uk shop price including collection costs 57%

160 national supers, 40 national deep droods, and fourty roofs and floors and frames
saving on uk shop prices including collection costs 75%

6,000 national frames sn1 and 12 by 14inc wax foundation sheets, saving on uk cost inc collection cost 45%

four stainless extractors three un cappers and 5,000 jars and lids, savings on uk shop prices inc collection costs 70% on equipment 50 % on glass jars

when we came through dover with the wax sheets the customs guy stopped us look in the back of the van said what is it , we told him and since its not drink, fags or drugs and its for personal use we went straight through and out.

its looking to me that unless i can get the order over the 10,000 jar size the "extras" are killing the product single price where as £150 of diesel gets me to poland with a transit van and back and with £50 for the ferry on top i think the drive to lysons is on the cards, and i think i will start to google european glass jam jar makers too. the whole chinise think is getting to out of hand to my mind , the risks are starting to build up past peters levels.

I was struck by the fact that you've imported BS Nat equipment since no other country uses (or manufactures it ).

Looking at Lysons site (together with other Polish manufacturers who do'nt have an English language websitte) I've toyed with buying some equipment from them and partly for that reason may be going over to Langstoths in future. I've even thought about the possibility of ordering Nat hivres, made especially to order and may go further into this when I next go to Poland. Tell me, is this how you've gone inyto importing Nat equipment ?

 

[Skyhook]

Pete, given not only the hassle and expense of importing, but also the CO2 involved in the travel (not to mention jobs), I hope you'll at least give the Coventry firm a chance to give their best offer before deciding.

Of course we live in a global economy and have to import sometimes, but that doesn't mean it should be considered inevitable.

 

[Poly Hive]

All very noble Skyhook but in ripoff Britian it becomes inevitable if you want quality and price competitiveness you look abroad.

PH

 

[wojciech]

Importing

All very noble Skyhook but in ripoff Britian it becomes inevitable if you want quality and price competitiveness you look abroad.

PH

I agree - the price differential between British Beekeeping equipment and that manufactured abroad is mind boggling. As regards quality, I was looking at some Warre / Gillaume hives last year on a local bio-dynamic farm and was interested to hear that they are manufactured in Poland. Their quality was easily equal, if not superior, to any hives ( conventional ) that I have seen in this country since I started beekeeping.

 

[hedgerow pete]

the only reason we brough national frames from poland was we were working near a lysons dealer and asked him to quote us to make a set of frames to our specs which as we had a minium order of 6,000 for him it was worth his time and effort. we paid him i think it was 30pence per frame with the exchange rate on slottys at the time.

we also went to a a normal timber joinery shop for the national bodys and we were paying some thing stupid like £50 a full complete hive and this guy was ripping us off cause we were paying tourist prices.

ok so a lot of the prices in poland have gone up and the costs of living are going upwards towards uk levels but timber in poland is still cheap so are the manafacturing costs if you look hard enough.

as a silly foot note the wife and i went for a dirty weekend in france this time last year and stopped off at a shop to buy a bottle of plonk or ten for the drive home, we found that we could buy in this shop, flip lid beer bottles , , like the grlouch ones, but these were full of beer and the same price we were thinking of paying for empty ones in the uk!!

just because we are at home dont think for a moment that we are cheap, uk has some of the highest prices in the european area.

if you are willing as i do and have a weekend away and a nice family break and a quick stop off on the way back to fill the car up you can save loads.

it takes a normal man driving at 60 miles per hour (me) about five hours to drive to cornwall,helston to see my family and the same sort of time to get to hadrians wall and at least 11 hours to get to john ogroats. i know i have done it.

i can get to paris quicker than it takes me to get to cornwall and that includes the ferry time and i can do berlin before you could get to john o groats.

europe is next door why egnor it