UK Company Looking to Expand to AUS - Distribution, Fulfilment and Company Reg Advice

[Will L]

We've recently seen a nice gap in the Australian market and would love to expand into that region..

Ideally we want to get a .com.au website up, with it's own stock and partner up with a distribution/fulfilment provider to deliver to customers.

Questions

• Can anyone recommend any distribution/fulfilment providers?
• Does anyone have any experience with doing similar?
• What requirements would there be to operate in AUS? I'm assuming an AUS company needs to be registered or can we still operate and take payment through our UK Ltd?
• What implications does this have for tax/vat?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Belford]

This is something I am also looking at doing in the very near future be very interested to see what advice you get

 

[Nic-AU]

Hi Guys, as Kelly mentioned above I would recommend having a look at our Government website as there is some useful info there.

Over here we have GST, goods and services tax which is 10%. And Duty upon import which can vary but is usually around 5% if applicable.

Aus is a big country and it can sometimes be a shock to see the cost of domestic postage on larger items.

I would recommend choosing to partner with a company based on the east coast eg Sydney or Brisbane.

Feel free to drop me a message regarding warehousing, freight and so on.

Regards
Nic C - AU

 

[Will L]

Hi Guys, as Kelly mentioned above I would recommend having a look at our Government website as there is some useful info there.

Over here we have GST, goods and services tax which is 10%. And Duty upon import which can vary but is usually around 5% if applicable.

Aus is a big country and it can sometimes be a shock to see the cost of domestic postage on larger items.

I would recommend choosing to partner with a company based on the east coast eg Sydney or Brisbane.

Feel free to drop me a message regarding warehousing, freight and so on.

Regards
Nic C - AU

Currently I am looking at NPF Fulfilment (cant link with under 30 posts yet) on the fulfilment side, they seem pretty reasonable with their costs?

Thanks, I will check out the website, hoping to find someone I can talk to but if anyone can answer my questions above please do so.

 

[Wavecrest Ltd]

If you need help or advice on shipping to Australia we can help. Also we have reliable partners at the main ports in Australia so if you are looking for an opinion on a particular fulfillment company there let us know by PM and we can ask our colleagues.

 

[Hireday.com]

Currently I am looking at NPF Fulfilment (cant link with under 30 posts yet) on the fulfilment side,

I spend 50% of my time in London and 50% in Melbourne.

NPF are a good company, I have dealt with them a few times. They will negotiate better courier rates than you can get on your own due to the volume of packages they send.

However, you need to have less SKU's than orders. That is, they prefer you to have one product that ships in volume rather than a range of products shipping in lower volume.

Depending on your niche, this could be an issue.

You must be a registered company to get a .com.au address.

the Australian government websites are really good, informative and useful. As has been said before, I would recommend these as a starting point.

You need to get a tax accountant or lawyer to discuss the tax and legal structure. I would suggest contacting one in Australia who has experience in this area and asking for £500/$1000 of advice and help (set an upper limit!).