EU Jurisdiction for Alcohol & Spirits Import/Export Trading

[DBeker]

Just wanted to see if anyone here does a little parallel trading or import/export of controlled products such as alcohols and spirits? I am a resident in France and my business partner is sort-of resident in France, but he works for a foreign embassy. We essentially are looking to buy various alcohols and spirits (wines, beers, whiskey's etc.) from other distributors who have overstocked goods and would then move these goods into a bonded warehouse in an EU member state and then get them exported to various non-EU destinations (in particular the country of my business partner, given that he is well connected there). Simple and steady business that does not require too much skill to operate basically.

Given that we are going to be Import/Export traders of sort, we do need decent banking services and so we cannot rely on EMI facilities. We are considering France as we are based here, but we were also looking at perhaps a Luxembourg SARL, as Luxembourg has a good network of bonded warehouses as well as good cargo/logistics services. Not sure how expensive it is to operate a business there given that we are both non-residents though.

Not too sure on how easy it is to get the right permits/licenses to distribute alcohol products, but I would think it should not be too complicated.

Any opinions here on Luxembourg for this type of business and any traps to watch out for? Any other EU jurisdiction recommendations? Thanks in advance

 

[Martin Everson]

Sounds a fair business.

my business partner is sort-of resident in France, but he works for a foreign embassy.

He is a PEP (Politically Exposed Person) which is high risk. That may make banking a little difficult if his name is involved in company.

Any opinions here on Luxembourg for this type of business and any traps to watch out for? Any other EU jurisdiction recommendations? Thanks in advance

Pick the cheapest EU country with best transportation to destination to maximize profit. You can move the goods freely around the EU to find the best export conditions. I wouldn't personally choose a land locked country like Luxembourg. What is wrong with France if you live there already?

 

[DBeker]

Sounds a fair business.



He is a PEP (Politically Exposed Person) which is high risk. That may make banking a little difficult if his name is involved in company.



Pick the cheapest EU country with best transportation to destination to maximize profit. You can move the goods freely around the EU to find the best export conditions. I wouldn't personally choose a land locked country like Luxembourg. What is wrong with France if you live there already?

We are open to setting up in France, but given that Luxembourg has a convenient cargo airport and good network of logistics suppliers, we thought it might be of interest. From our research, much of our supply is likely coming from places like Belgium, Netherlands, Poland and Czechia, so we thought this could be a convenient location for warehousing.

As for my partner being a PEP, it may not be him, himself. But he is the son of a prominent military general, so thanks for the tip. We might indeed need to re-evaluate how we structure ourselves. Maybe put a holding company in-between us and the final trading company or something. We will give this some though.