Spotlight On: Nottingham

#WeAreCustomsSupport
Image
Nottingham City Office

Manufacturing, construction, lace, and more. Toni Henstock explains how her small but powerful team of import declarants services the UK in this article.

Tell us about the Nottingham office

The Customs Support office in Nottingham was acquired with UK Customs Solutions back in 2021. We are a team of nine here, focused on providing import customs services to the UK.

The imports declarations is shared between the Customs Support offices, but we do try to manage some of the more local accounts so that we can visit them as well. We also work with a lot of freight forwarders and other agents here in Nottingham, who outsource their declarations to us when they do not have a badge code for the port of import.

What kind of import declarations do you regularly manage?

We process a lot of declarations for larger volume accounts here in Nottingham, such as manufacturing, construction, and retail. It’s a good mix of traders who bring in the goods to work on, such as factories, and the larger wholesalers who provide the materials to construction companies and stores.

Foodstuffs are another common commodity that we specialise in here. We process a lot of declarations for wine, which is an excise good since Brexit, and complete the import process for foodstuffs of all kinds. Our team here is very well-versed in IPAFFS and CDS for food declarations.

What is Nottingham known for?

Well, everybody knows Robin Hood and his Merry Men, but there is more to our vibrant city than legends and historical landmarks. We have one of the top three universities in England, there is a huge art community, and we have a lot of musicians coming out of the city as well.

Sports are also big in Nottingham, encouraged by both the university and the local barracks. Our top teams are the local cricket and football clubs, who do very well nationally.

Another thing that Nottingham is famous for is lace; there used to be a whole quarter that manufactured lace in the city. Now, only one company remains, and they are the top go-to for fashion designers around the UK.

Did you know?

  • The lace for Princess Diana’s wedding dress was manufactured in Nottingham, which was a secret until after the ceremony.
  • The Major Oak, a 28-meter wide oak tree in the middle of Sherwood Forest which is known to be a hiding place of Robin Hood and his Merry Men, was voted England’s tree of the year in 2014 by a Woodland Trust poll.
  • Boots, a leading pharmacy chain in England and the creator of ibuprofen, was born in Nottingham as a family-run herbal medicine shop.

Do you need import customs clearance in the UK?

The Customs Support team in Nottingham, or any of our other locations, provide customs clearance services in all major UK sea and air ports. Contact one of our experts for more information.