FMCG · vapes · soft drinks · the funded import cycle

Import FMCG with someone else's working capital.

Vapes carry a new excise duty from 1 October 2026. Soft drinks carry the sugar levy. Both carry a cash cycle most wholesalers fund out of their own pocket — and don't have to. Stack negotiated supplier terms, Postponed VAT Accounting, a duty deferment account, bonded + excise suspension and an invoice-finance line, and the consignment can fund itself. This planner puts numbers on the whole stack — compliance deadlines included.

Plan the cycle → Bond decision only Full instant quote
£2.20
VPD per 10ml · 1 Oct 2026
2 bands
SDIL · quarterly return
5 levers
Terms · PVA · DDA · bond · IF
£0
To find out
The funded cycle · /api/fmcg

One consignment. Every duty leg. Peak cash need, before and after.

Enter the consignment and the terms you've negotiated (or want to). You get the day-by-day cash ledger, the peak funding requirement with and without the stack, and the compliance timeline for your product — VPD approvals, duty stamps, SDIL registration, the 2028 sugar-threshold reform.

Duty rates + deadlines are computed for THIS date — a vape landing after 1 Oct 2026 carries VPD; today it doesn't.
Units × ml per unit. 10,000 × 2ml disposables = 20,000ml.
5–8g = lower band · 8g+ = higher band. 2028: threshold drops to 4.5g.
Duty is strength-based: £/litre of pure alcohol, banded at 3.5 / 8.5 / 22% ABV.
The 3.5–8.5% band rate differs by product — beer £22.58, still cider £10.39, others £26.61 per litre of pure alcohol.
From the instant quote — tariff-rate × customs value.
Negotiated days from supplier invoice to payment. The lever most importers never pull.
Excise suspension needs its own HMRC approval — a customs warehouse alone does NOT suspend VPD.
We arrange the facility introduction. Advance % below is an assumption until a funder quotes.

Indicative decision support · rates verified against GOV.UK · not tax, customs or lending advice

The stack, honestly

Five levers. Each one moves cash out of the border and back into the business.

free

Postponed VAT Accounting

Import VAT goes to the VAT return instead of the border. Zero cost, zero approval — just tick it on the declaration. If you import and don't use PVA, you're lending HMRC money for free.

approval

Duty deferment account

Customs and excise duty collect on the 15th of the following month by direct debit — one approval (Notice 101, CCG waiver where eligible) moves every border payment ~30 days.

approval ×2 for vapes

Bonded + excise suspension

A customs warehouse suspends customs duty + import VAT until stock sells. For vapes, VPD needs its own excise suspension (excise warehouse / approved store) — the two approvals are separate, and we plan both.

negotiated

Supplier terms

The cheapest working capital in the chain is the supplier's. Terms negotiated past your invoice-finance advance date collapse the funding gap — the planner shows exactly how many days you need.

arranged

Invoice finance

An advance on the sales ledger the day you invoice — the inflow that makes every other lever land. We arrange the introduction and size the facility from this planner's numbers.

compliance

The deadlines that bite

VPD live 1 Oct 2026 · duty stamps an offence to skip from 1 Apr 2027 · SDIL registration before the first liable import · sugar threshold drops to 4.5g and milk drinks come in scope Jan 2028.

FAQ

Does a bonded warehouse suspend the new vape duty?
No — and this is the trap. Customs warehousing suspends customs duty + import VAT only. Vaping Products Duty is an excise duty: it needs an excise warehouse or HMRC-approved store under a separate excise duty-suspension approval. The planner models the two independently so the difference is visible in cash.
Can I defer the sugar levy too?
SDIL is already deferred by design — it's not a border payment. You report on a quarterly return and pay within 30 days of the period end (~75 days average from import). It can't be suspended in bond, and exports are credited through the return rather than relieved at the warehouse door.
What happens to vape stock I import before 1 October 2026?
Stock that clears its duty point before VPD starts doesn't carry the new duty — but from 1 April 2027 it's an offence to hold or sell unstamped product, so unstamped stock must sell through before that date. The compliance timeline in your result shows both dates against your programme.
Is the invoice-finance advance guaranteed?
No — the advance % and fee here are planning assumptions until a funder quotes on your actual ledger. What we do: size the requirement from this planner, arrange the introduction, and hand the funder a clean, evidenced cash-conversion cycle — which is exactly what gets facilities approved.
Is this tax advice?
No. Rates and dates are verified against GOV.UK and cited in the result, but this is decision support — the return, the declaration and your advisers decide. Pair it with the bond decision engine and the instant quote for the full picture.
Where does my email + result go?
Your result is sent to your inbox. Your details land in the BRG intelligence layer (Supabase, RLS-protected) so we can follow up with a sector plan. We never share or sell your data. Consent is explicit and tied to the opt-in box.
Decision support, not tax, customs or lending advice. The importer stays accountable.