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3PL IN PORTUGAL

We are your 3PL partner in Portugal.

A 3PL in Portugal stores your goods, ships your orders and takes back your returns from inside the EU. If you are a US brand, or any brand from outside the EU, that is only half the job: someone also has to arrange customs clearance, act as importer and take care of VAT. We do both halves in one operation in Portugal, so your stock arrives once and then sells across the 27 member states.

Before you sign

What should a brand from outside the EU ask a 3PL in Portugal?

Start with the import, not the shelf. A warehouse that only stores and ships leaves customs clearance, import VAT and fiscal representation to others, and every handover is a place where stock can stop. Ask six questions:

  • Who arranges customs clearance when the container arrives in Portugal?
  • Who is the importer of record: you, or the operation?
  • Who provides the fiscal representative for VAT?
  • Can one stock serve your webstore, your marketplaces and your business buyers?
  • Can you see your stock line by line without being on site?
  • Where do your customers send their returns?

Here is how we answer each of them.

The import

How does a US brand import into the EU through Portugal?

Your goods arrive once, in bulk, and we arrange customs clearance in Portugal. Most stock is released for free circulation on arrival, and duty and import VAT fall due at that release. Goods that suit it can wait under bond at selected licensed sites instead, until you release them.

For the import you choose one of two routes: you import under your own EU VAT and EORI numbers, or our operation acts as importer of record (not for medical devices). A business from outside the EU with taxable operations in Portugal generally needs a VAT fiscal representative, and our operation provides it. VAT on consumer sales into other member states can be reported through the Union OSS scheme, under one registration in your name.

Why Portugal

Why hold your European stock in Portugal?

Portugal is inside the EU, the euro and the customs union, so goods released there move to all 27 member states with no further customs step. Its hourly labour cost was EUR 19.4 in 2025, against an EU average of EUR 34.9 (Eurostat): close to Poland and well below the Netherlands, Germany and France.

It also opens onto the Atlantic: the container terminal at Sines moved more than 189,000 TEU in July 2026, its highest monthly figure since it opened in 2004 (AICEP Portugal Global).

Hourly labour cost, 2025

Industry, construction and services, excluding public administration; Eurostat, dataset lc_lci_lev.

Hourly labour cost in euro per hour, 2025, by country
CountryEUR per hour, 2025
Poland 19.1
Portugal 19.4
Spain 26.4
EU average 34.9
France 44.3
Germany 45.0
Netherlands 47.9

The operation

What does our operation in Portugal include?

Four warehouse sites in Portugal, in the north around Oporto and in the Lisbon area, working as one operation. The sites and our logistics partner are on our operating base page. Every service works on the same stock:

  • Pallet, shelf and bulk storage, with about 12,000 pallets across the sites.
  • Bonded storage at selected licensed sites, with duty and import VAT suspended, not waived, until each release.
  • Customs clearance, importer of record (not for medical devices), fiscal representation and OSS VAT.
  • Pick, pack and dispatch to your own packaging, inserts and labels.
  • Temperature-controlled storage where the product requires it.
  • National distribution across Portugal, our own road lines to Spain, Benelux, Italy, the United Kingdom and Switzerland, and sea and air freight.
  • Returns to an address inside the EU, inspected and restocked.

What stays yours

What stays yours when we take care of your logistics?

You keep your customers, your pricing and your brand on the box. Your goods stay yours, and so does the margin: we work for you, not as a distributor.

You see inventory, movements and order status from your own systems: our integration layer connects your store, your marketplaces and your ERP to the warehouse. One stock pool serves consumer parcels, marketplace orders and business pallets, so you hold one inventory in Europe, not one per channel.

IN ONE SENTENCE

Ask a 3PL in Portugal who takes care of the import, not only who stores the boxes.

Questions

Frequently asked questions

Do I need a company in the EU to use a 3PL in Portugal?

No. You can import under your own EU VAT and EORI numbers, or our operation acts as importer of record (not for medical devices); our operation provides the fiscal representative. You keep your customers and your margin, with no European entity, payroll or warehouse lease to set up.

Can one warehouse in Portugal serve Spain and the rest of the EU?

Yes. Once your stock is released for free circulation in Portugal, it can go to any member state without a second import. We have our own road lines to Spain, Benelux and Italy, and the same stock serves Portuguese and Spanish buyers. VAT on consumer sales into other member states can be reported through the Union OSS scheme, in your name, instead of a VAT registration in each country.

Does one EORI number work in every EU country?

Yes. You can hold only one valid EORI number, and it works for customs in every EU country, as the European Commission sets out. A business from outside the EU registers in the country where its customs operations start, here Portugal, and uses that number everywhere else.

Can you work with medical devices and other regulated products?

Yes. We store and ship medical devices and other regulated products under the conditions they need, including temperature control. For medical devices, the importer and authorised representative roles under the MDR (Regulation (EU) 2017/745) sit with your EU importer and representative. For consumer products in scope of the GPSR (Regulation (EU) 2023/988), we can act as your responsible person.