Food

Selling food into Europe while shelf life, storage conditions, and the border decide what actually reaches the shelf?

Shelf life is the budget your product spends. We store to condition, track every lot and date, and keep the border from spending it for you.

How we work with food brands

The shelf life arrives intact.

We store your products under the conditions they need in our European centres and run expiry and lot discipline so nothing ships out of date. Customs is handled once at entry, so your shelf life is spent selling, not waiting at a border.

Shelf life is the budget. We make sure the border does not spend it.

How we run it

Stored to condition, shipped in date.

  1. Stored to condition

    Your products are stored under the conditions they need in our European centres.

  2. Expiry and lot discipline

    We run expiry and lot discipline on every line, so nothing ships out of date and every lot is accounted for.

  3. Shelf life spent selling

    Customs is handled once at entry, so your shelf life is spent selling, not waiting at a border.

Where your product goes

Retail shelves, distributors, and direct doors.

Food sells direct and through the trade at the same time. The same lot-tracked stock serves both, from inside the EU, within its dated shelf life.

Retail shelves, distributors, and direct doors.: 3 operational facts.
Where What happens
Retailers and distributors Trade orders go out as B2B freight from the same lot-tracked inventory, picked in date, every lot accounted for.
Direct to your customer D2C orders ship from stock already inside the EU, picked within its expiry and lot discipline.
Available inside the EU Stock is already in and already cleared, so an order dispatches inside its shelf life instead of spending it at a border.
Food goods storage, shelf-life management, and EU fulfillment operations.

IN OPERATION

Stock enters the EU in one clearance, moves directly to temperature-controlled storage, and leaves with its shelf life intact.

THE BASE FOR THIS SECTOR

How the European base serves Food.

For food brands stock is released for free circulation on arrival, or held under bond for high-duty ranges. It is kept under the conditions the product needs, and goods that require official inspection are presented through the on-site DRAP/DGAV free area. The same pool then serves the channels food sells through: direct-to-consumer, B2B trade, and marketplace where a brand sells there.

  • Bonded customs warehouse Direct-to-consumer Stock can be held in a bonded customs warehouse, so duty and import VAT are deferred until the goods are released.
  • Duty and import VAT deferred Direct-to-consumer Under bond, duty and import VAT are suspended until each release, so stock not yet released carries no border tax.
  • Fiscal and excise warehouse B2B and wholesale A tax warehouse holds excise goods, such as alcoholic drinks, under a suspended-tax regime, so excise duty is charged only when they are released.
  • Full fulfilment Direct-to-consumer Full fulfilment covers B2C and B2B pick and pack, assembly and kitting, returns and RMA, repairs, marketplace prep, and tailor-made work.

How it plays out

Two situations, run this way, end to end.

  1. The situation

    A food brand whose shelf life was being spent in transit and at borders, reaching retailers with too few selling days left on the date.

    What runs

    Stock is stored under the conditions it needs in our European centres, handled once, at bulk import, and trade orders ship from inside the EU.

    What changes

    Shelf life is spent selling, not waiting at a border.

  2. The situation

    A producer shipping dated goods into Europe with no lot discipline downstream, learning about an out-of-date dispatch from the buyer who received it.

    What runs

    We run expiry and lot discipline on every line: picked in date, every lot accounted for.

    What changes

    An out-of-date dispatch stops being the way the brand learns about its own stock.

What you can count on

Storage conditions and dates are ours to hold.

The storage conditions and the dates are ours to hold; food-safety certification stays with you as the brand.

What you can count on

  1. In date
  2. In stock
  3. On the shelf

Business development

How does a food brand earn and keep a place in European chains?

Food is retail chain led, and the chain decides by category, on a calendar. Our business development team has spent many years developing markets across a wide range of sectors, in the United States and Europe. For your range, that starts with research: which markets suit what you make, how comparable brands entered them, and which entries lasted. The strategy is built around those calendars, and the market is then managed with you, chain by chain and distributor by distributor.

  • Category buyer at a supermarket group
  • Private label manager, where the chain runs its own line
  • Wholesaler or foodservice distributor in your category

How the engagement runs

What buyers ask

What Food brands ask before they move stock into Europe.

How are EU food labeling requirements handled?

EFC checks labeling against EU food information requirements, Regulation (EU) 1169/2011 on food information to consumers, as part of the operation today. It also runs expiry and lot discipline so nothing ships out of date.

What does the EU border do to our food shelf life?

Under standard import, EFC clears customs once at entry, so your shelf life is spent selling, not waiting at a border.

Who handles import notification requirements when our food enters the EU?

EFC handles import notification requirements today as part of the operation, when the stock enters the EU. Notification and customs are dealt with once, at entry.

EFC

Food

Talk to us about getting your food onto European shelves.

Tell us what you make and the conditions it needs. We will show you how the storage, the dates, and the deliveries get handled.

Get a quote