Live Updates:

• 19th May 2021 –

  • We noticed an error so have updated the blog. We’ve made the changes in the text – to confirm, orders for Switzerland, Norway and all non-EU countries are sent via a DDU service, which means parcels are subject to VAT and customs duties and are not covered by British Corner Shop. Please do check your local customs office before placing an order.

• 13th April 2021-

  • We are currently shipping to the following territories: Republic of Ireland, Belgium, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Finland, Poland, Romania, Sweden, Switzerland.
  • The following territories are still suspended on our site while we continue to work to find a resolution: Corsica, Monaco, Azores, Formentera, Ibiza, Mallorca, Menorca, Sardinia, Sicily, Austria, Bulgaria (Republic), Canary Islands, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Slovakia, Slovenia, Greece, Balearic Isles.
  • Norway and Switzerland will be sent with DHL are sent on a Delivery Duty Unpaid service. This means that you will be required to pay the VAT. There may be customs duty – we do advise you to check your local customs office before placing an order.
  • We have unfortunately had to reduce the range of products available to these countries in order to comply with rules set by our courier partner. More information on our reduced range here.

• 18th March – 

  • Since our resumed service to selected EU countries, we can confirm that we are still taking the ‘Delivery Duty Paid’ route. This means that, unlike other services, there will be no hidden or additional costs when you shop with us. We make the VAT calculations and payments automatically behind the scenes with our courier partners so you will not need to make any additional VAT payments yourself.

• 11th March – 

  • We have resumed our service to the following countries: Republic of Ireland, Belgium, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Finland, Poland
    Romania, Sweden, Switzerland.
  • We have unfortunately had to reduce the range of products available to these countries in order to comply with customs.
  • The following territories are still suspended on our site while we continue to work to find a resolution: Corsica, Monaco, Azores, Formentera, Ibiza, Mallorca, Menorca, Sardinia, Sicily, Austria, Bulgaria (Republic), Canary Islands, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Slovakia, Slovenia, Greece, Balearic Isles, Norway

• 10th March – Further to the temporary suspension to the EU, please see below:

  • If you have an order with us and have not received a dispatch notification, please refer to our Existing EU Order Information Blog for the latest updates.

• 9th March –

  • Unfortunately, orders to the EU remain suspended. This suspension is due to a small uncertainty over customs clearance. However, thanks to our hard work to resume collections throughout February we are in a strong position. Many different courier options have already been tried and tested; therefore, the great news is that we are confident that this will be resolved shortly.
  • We are currently working on several different courier options which are already extremely promising, and we expect to be processing and shipping EU orders again very soon.

• 5th March – 

  • We have unfortunately suspended taking orders from EU countries again. This is as a precaution due to further uncertainty over customs clearance meaning that we have had to pause taking new orders once again while we work with Customs Brokers to facilitate smooth entry into the EU. The situation is still fluid with information changing daily.
  • We apologise for the inconvenience – thank you for your continued patience and understanding. We expect to be taking EU orders again from Tuesday 9th March.

• 3rd March –

  • We have been working around the clock to provide you with a concrete solution to the challenges we have faced with delivering your favourite British goods to the EU. This hard work has finally paid off and we are now shipping orders to the EU with a new tried and tested courier service.
  • We kindly ask you to allow 4 – 10 working days for delivery, as the necessary processing and customs clearance checks are taking a little longer post-Brexit. After we successfully ship all of the backlogged orders, this time will reduce and we will be back to our usual speedy delivery times.
  • Unfortunately, we are still unable to ship to the following countries: Corsica, Azores, Formentera, Ibiza, Mallorca, Menorca, Sardinia, Sicily, Austria, Bulgaria (Republic), Canary Islands, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Malta, Balearic Isles.
  • If you are in one of the countries listed above, please update your country here so we can let you know when we are delivering again.

• 24th February – 

  • We have sent several backlogged orders with a selection of couriers. One, in particular, has had a very high success rate, so we have decided to take this courier on to clear all backlogged orders. Our goal is to ship out these between now and Friday – we will communicate with you directly to let you know this has happened.
  • Subject to the remaining orders being delivered without issues, this may enable us to resume our service to EU countries in the very near future.
  • If we do ship orders with the courier mentioned above, their rates are very competitive and the delivery time is on par with other couriers.

• 18th February –

  • We are currently trialling many different routes and couriers in order to find a solution and resume delivery to the EU. We have sent out 100 parcels via different solutions – we will contact you if this affects your parcel.
  • Until we have found an effective solution, the EU will remain suspended on our website.
  • DPD have resumed road services, however, their list of restricted items to the EU is still extremely limiting so we are working with them to find a resolution.
  • DHL is still suspending services for food and drink delivery. We are still receiving parcels back from DHL but are working hard to find a solution and get these delivered to customers.

• 10th February – There are no further updates to report. EU countries remain temporarily suspended on our site as we continue to work had to find a solution.

• 4th February 5.30pm

  • We have temporarily suspended orders to EU Countries. From the 4th February, DHL has suspended collections and we do not know when they will start collecting again. We are working on several solutions and expect to be processing and shipping EU orders again very soon. We apologise for this inconvenience and will let you know as soon as we’re able to take your order again.

• 3rd February –

  • 90% of our EU parcels are successfully clearing customs. However please be aware that there may still be delays at custom offices due to the new paperwork and extensive rules and regulations for each European Country. We are experiencing this the most in Germany, Italy and Spain.

• 1st February – DHL is still experiencing delays for EU and non-EU parcels due to the additional workload that Brexit has caused.

• 29th January – 

  • There are delays for non-EU residents using DHL service – this is due to their increased workload following Brexit.
  • We are in contact with DHL about the customs issues that some of our customers are facing. We are working closely with them to resolve these issues and hope that soon 100% of parcels will seamlessly clear customs.

• 27th January – We are continuing to ship the backlog with DHL and have 30 pallets ready for collection. However, please bear in mind that DHL is experiencing high volumes so there may be minor delays.

• 26th January – No further updates to report. The suspension of DPD as a courier choice for the EU is still in place and we are continuing to successfully ship the backlog of orders with DHL.

• 25th January 9.30am –

  • We have successfully shipped 12 pallets of the backlog orders with DHL and are confident that we will ship a further 60 over the course of this week.
  • We have suspended DPD as a courier choice for EU until further notice.

• 22nd January – 

  • We thought we had made progress with DPD and the backlog of orders, however, DPD has returned more parcels to us. We have therefore made the decision to ship the backlog of parcels with DHL. DPD will continue to remain off the site as a courier option until they can prove that they can deliver parcels to the EU successfully.
  • All customers with orders containing restricted items have now been contacted and refunds are currently being processed.

• 21st January 10.30am – 

  • We have shipped 250 of the backlogged orders successfully with DPD and are confident the rest will go by the end of this week.
  • We are closing in on a solution that lets you select DPD as a courier again and we are hopeful that by the end of today it will be live.

• 20th January –

  • We are still ironing out some issues with DPD on our system, so we have decided to pause DPD as a courier selection on our site for another 24 hours.
  • DHL have reduced their Brexit surcharge to £9.50 for all EU orders.
  • We have made significant steps in resolving the backlog of orders. We’re optimistic that once the DPD issues are resolved, these orders will start to be shipped.

• 19th January – 

  • DPD is still suspended as a courier option on our site. We anticipate that they will remain suspended for at least another 24 hours while we iron out the creases and make sure the process is running smoothly.
  • We are still working on a solution to resolve the backlog of DPD orders for which we need the support of a third party. Resolving the backlog of orders remains our top priority.

• 18th January 10am – 

  • DPD have started collecting new orders again, we are working closely with them to get these orders collected and ensure this process is running smoothly. Please note this doesn’t include the current backlog of orders.
  • We are closing in on a solution to get the backlog of orders delivered and we will hopefully have these orders out by the end of the week.

• 15th January 11.00am –

  •  As of this morning, we have not received any updates from DPD regarding their suspension of collecting orders.
  • We are still working through the backlog of orders. We are working hard to find a solution to either ship with alternative couriers or to get DPD back up and running shortly.
  • We have found that some items are being returned to us due to certain ingredients which are now restricted by EU customs.
  • For EU countries, we have now removed all products containing restricted ingredients from our site, so going forward customers should not face this issue.
  • Rest assured we are getting in touch with customers whose orders contained restricted items.

• 14th January 10.40am – We are continuing to suspend DPD on our site whilst we continue to prioritise existing orders. We are working on a resolution to get all existing DPD orders out to customers.

• 13th January 2021, 11.00am – DPD has extended their suspension for collecting orders and will be reviewing the suspension on Friday 15th January. We have decided to suspend DPD as a courier on our site for all EU countries whilst we prioritise existing customer orders.  DHL are collecting and shipping (with minor delays) – however, please note DHL are more expensive.

• 12th January 2021 – All EU orders placed with DHL as the selected courier are now being collected and shipped. Please note delivery may still be delayed due to congestion at borders. Our other couriers are still not collecting orders and we are in constant discussion with them about how to resolve this.

• 11th January 2021 – No further updates to report.

• 8th January 2021 – Board members at British Corner Shop are working on a strategy to resolve by the end of today and an update will follow. We are also creating a ‘service updates’ page so that the information is listed and clear going forward.

• 7th January 2021 – Our courier partners have suspended collections to validate the data they have in their system for them to successfully resume their services. In addition to this, they are seeing delays and congestion at UK ports and more rigid requirements for channel crossings.

• 4th – 7th January 2021 – Our Technical Team is still working on resolving the IT integration issue.

• 30th – 31st December 2020 – Our IT department and system specialists push through many last-minute changes to help ease the Brexit transition with the goal of dispatching orders on the 4th Jan. This type of integration is usually done over 2 – 3 weeks and must go through serious testing. However, we did not have the time to do this as the border closures meant we had your orders and needed to get them shipped as soon as possible.

• 29th December 2020 – The EU and UK Government agreed on a free trade deal for Brexit. While celebrating this deal, we knew that every parcel which was unable to be collected would now need to go through rigorous Brexit changes.

• 23rd December 2020 – Our couriers partners advised they would not collect any orders until 4th Jan. Which meant we had pallets of orders sitting in our warehouse packed and ready to go.

• 21st December 2020 – the EU closed its borders to the UK and couriers refused to collect any parcels. We continued to dispatch parcels as we assumed this would be rectified and orders would be collected before Christmas.

FAQs

What happens after the 1st January 2021?

The UK and EU have now reached a deal on free trade, which means that there will be no customs duty to pay. As a result, there will be no need to impose the 150 Euro maximum value per order that we had previously planned.

Our couriers have added a ‘Brexit Surcharge’ to cover the additional costs incurred due to the changes in regulations. You will see this additional charge at Checkout.

Will I have to pay extra VAT?

No, nothing will change for you in this regard. Our prices already include VAT, and you will not have to pay any additional VAT on top.

We are taking the ‘Delivery Duty Paid’ route, where we will make the VAT calculations and payments automatically behind the scenes with our courier partners. You will not need to make

any additional VAT payments yourself.

Will I have to pay Customs Duty?

No, the recent free trade deal between the UK and EU means that you will not have to pay any Customs Duty.

Will I have to go to the post office to pay Customs Duty or VAT?

No, you will not have to visit the post office to pay any additional duties or VAT. No customs duty will be levied, as the UK and EU have reached a deal on free trade.

Will there be delays delivering to Europe?

We are working closely with our courier partners to ensure we minimise the chance of any delays in delivery.

We will also be restricting the sale of a small number of very short life products temporarily, in case there are any delays in delivery during the transitional period at the end of December/start of January. There may be some congestion at the ports in the first week or two, but we expect things will normalise quickly. After Brexit, deliveries shouldn’t take any longer than they do now.

Will your prices increase?

No, we are not planning to increase our product prices, and you will not have to pay extra VAT or Customs Duty.

There will be a small ‘Brexit Surcharge’, charged to us by the courier companies, of a few pounds per order. You will see this additional charge at Checkout.

Will there be changes in your product selection?

We don’t envisage any restrictions to the product range we offer post-Brexit but there is a chance some or all our agricultural products containing meat and fish may be restricted. However, we cannot confirm this yet.

At the moment, you’ll still be able to shop your British favourites with ease. If this changes, we will update this page regularly and keep you informed.

What happens if there is a last-minute deal?

Update: There has now been a last-minute deal. A free trade agreement has been reached between the UK and Europe, so no customs duty will be charged on goods. This means that we will no longer be imposing the 150 Euro maximum order value, as we had originally planned. The purpose of that was to keep your orders below the customs duty threshold, and we’re very glad to say that it is no longer necessary.