Dr. Jackson’s Skincare

Patrick Bos, Chief Executive Officer

Testimonial

In 2021 UK based Dr. Jackson’s Skincare knocked on the HIDC door. Brexit came into effect about six months before and Dr. Jackson’s was struggling with some logistical and supply chain issues and could use some assistance from the Holland International Distribution Council (HIDC). Dr. Jackson’s advice for other (British) companies: “If you take the EU market serious, you have to open a EU warehouse.”

The effects of Brexit

Strategic supply chain planning became more important than ever for Dr. Jackson’s. Because of Brexit they had to sit on more components then usual which of course has a massive financial impact on the business. Patrick Bos: “A lot of our suppliers are based in the UK (wholesalers), however their components come from all over the world. We have seen delivery lead times go from 1-2 months to 4-5 months.”

Bos continues: “We experienced high duties, B2C shipments stuck in customs, very high shipping costs and we were not able to ship cosmetic goods to customers in Spain, Italy and Portugal from the UK.” Shipping from the UK to their EU B2B and B2C customers became very complicated and more importantly, very expensive. It was clear: Dr. Jackson’s Skincare needed to change its supply chain.

Why Dr. Jackson’s chose the Netherlands

As soon as Dr. Jackson’s decided to start a new warehouse in the EU, Patrick Bos reached out to HIDC. “Being Dutch makes this an obvious choice”, says Bos, but from a business perspective he had some good reasons too: “We looked at tax implications, ease of doing business, courier costs from warehouse to key markets and the Netherlands came on top. None of our EU B2B customers cared about where we have our warehouse – as long as we have a EU VAT and EU EORI number – meaning we could look at all potential markets.”

The advice from HIDC and introductions to potential partners

Bos: “HIDC has been brilliant. I know them from my time working at the West-Holland Foreign Investment Agency and they were my first point of contact – when we decided to have a new warehouse in the EU. HIDC supported me with introduction to potential 3PL partners (based on our requirements), advised on how to overcome some of the importation and tax implications and with introduction to parties that could help us overcome these implications.”

Of course Bos could have done all the research himself, but he didn’t: “This would have taken me 2-3 months longer. And without HIDC I am not sure if we would have come up with the solution for ‘Importer of Record’ for our shipments and might have made some mistakes.”

Quick and simple process

After Dr. Jackson’s was (virtually) introduced to potential partners they chose who they wanted to work with. But first things first: to be able to look at all potential markets Dr. Jackson’s needed an EU VAT and EU EORI number. Bos: “This is not too complicated and does not mean you have to set up a EU based Ltd either. The EU VAT number process was the most time efficient and was sorted in a matter of weeks!” For this Dr. Jackson’s worked together with Bol International.

Also, Dr. Jackson’s needed a EU warehouse in the Netherlands and the company decided to partner up with Monta. Bos: “By working with Monta, the opening of our EU warehouse and shipment into EU went very smooth. By adding a EU warehouse for our EU customers for example, we saved ourselves EUR 15 on some B2C orders!”

Bos is very happy about working together with Monta: “We are only in the initial phase of scaling up in Europe for our B2B and B2C shipments, but so far Monta has been super helpful and the integration went trouble-free. We are very confident we can scale our EU operations with them as our partner.”

Overall rating HIDC:

Dr. Jackson’s Natural Skincare
Dr. Jackson’s Natural Skincare is an award-winning and sustainable clean beauty & wellness brand from the UK. The company received awards like: Most Eco Friendly Beauty Brand of the year 2021, Best Vegan Skincare Brand, Most Sustainable Packaging Beauty Brands of the UK.

Website: https://drjackson.eu/

Monta
Monta is an e-commerce company that offers various logistics services to more than 1.500 online stores. In terms of fulfilment, they work with 14 independent e-commerce warehouses and take care of the processing and delivery of online orders worldwide. In addition, they also rent out their self-developed software, which they have been working with at Monta for many years within their warehouses. They rent out the software to customers with their own warehouses.

Overall rating Monta:

Bol International
Bol is full-service advisory practice that was originally established in 1952 and now has offices throughout the Netherlands. The company is supporting a wide range of foreign businesses and entrepreneurs with their activities in the Netherlands. They provide VAT advisory services and VAT representation in the Netherlands.