Why is Mountain House so much cheaper if you live in the US?

[mushroom]

I've been looking around at the price of Mountain House tins - but wherever you want to buy from in the UK you are looking at £30 - £40 per tin with a case of 6 tins going for around £220!! Then I noticed that if you live in the States it seems a much more reasonable price:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/NEW-Mountain- ... 3ccfa472d0

Would almost pay to have it shipped!!!
Does anyone know why this is?

[Sheepster]

Trouble is with import tax, shipping etc I bet its not worth it.....might contact them just to check though

[12mp82]

It is much the same with a lot of things in the US/UK they run at about half the price the UK does, but then again they get about half the pay

Have a look at a lot of consumer goods and it will be much the same price differences.

And as the £ loses value against the $ our prices go up as well, like it does with oil, strong dollar, weak pound and we end up paying more for it.

[Selfsufficientwoman]

Because of the import charges, VAT and handling fees - and can get very complicated for bulk imports and specifically the type of imports

Using an example of current mountain house products on linkhttp://www.mtnhse.com/mm5/merchant.mvc? ... Code=MHCBF

Breakfast skillett - $34.99
Egg Mix Butter Flavor - $48.99
Granola with Milk & Blueberries = $38.29
Scrambled Eggs with Bacon = $31.89
Scrambled Eggs with Ham and Red/Green Peppers = $34.99

Total = $189.15
Plus - $150.00 (guessing amount - say they ship via USPS - these tins would not fit in standard USPS priorty mail boxes so overseas shipping with own packing costs almost double the price - so $150.00 is a realistic average for shipping to UK

TOTAL = $339.15 /1.50 (using today's exchange rate) = £226.10
so now = £226.10 = you paid in UK money to US for the above using your debit card

Bear in mind you will get hit later with debit/credit card charge for foreign currency transaction
say 3.5% of total = £7.91 + £1.50 additional standard charge for foreign exchange admin fee.

BUT

when your order gets into the UK this is generally how HMRC Customs work out your UK charges for your US purchase.

TOTAL COST OF ITEMS (INLUDING DELIVERY ) = $339.15 / 1.53 (HMRC IMPORT CUSTOMS EXCHANGE RATE) to convert into pound sterling to work out the value of your item (YES THEY CALCULATE THE VALUE OF YOUR ITEM INCLUDING SHIPPING YOU ALREADY PAID FOR THE ITEM) HMRC set exchange rate for the aspecific month. This usually ALWAYS differs from the acutal current exchange rate for the day (see links at the bottom of this message)

= £221.66

If bringing via normal USPS - then Parcelforce is responsible for clearing your items. They do not charge import fees but do charge a handling charge & VAT on the "value of your item"

so Plus £8.00 - Parcelforce Handling Feee
PLUS - £44.33 VAT on 221.66

TOTAL ACTUAL COST TO YOU IS

what you originally paid for the item including shipping online = £226.10
Plus potential Card Charges (every bank charges different rates for FX transactions = £9.41
Plus Parcelforce handling fee = £8.00
Plus VAT on the value of your item = £43.33
_________
Total cost to you = £287.84
(total works out to $95.61 more US for the item when factoring all the charges)

This is just an idea on the various charges that apply to a very small individual shipment.

What many people don't realise that for a Company like Mountain House or any Company - with Bulk imports they may wmost will use the Freight of UPS, DHL or Fedex or depending on how large the shipment is even Ocean Freight.

Because if they are bringing in 10 packages via USPS the Parcelforce handling fee will be £8.00 x 10 packages - hitting you with £80.00 handling charges not including VAT charges on the 10 different packages.


When using the Airfreight or Ocean Freight method - the handling fee ranges from £35.00 - £60.00 on an average smallish shipment also using these methods DO incur an Import Charge and VAT on everything

To further complicate the matter - depending on what they are bringing in the product has different import Tariff Codes and % rates to be charged on an item - so some items are 0% rated, while others incur (say) a 6% import Tariff rate (which is used to work out the import charges on the whole shipment.

Finally dairy based product importers which do not use dairy from specific EU countries have to apply for special licences etc.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

So while yes it is annoying for us Brits to have to pay so much more for a particular product in the UK compared to the US - the import costs the seller has to incurr is not generally factored in by many people in addition to the capital and the cost of acquiring the capital to import the items in bulk into the UK in the first place, which again has to be factored into the price and of course a percentage of profit to make all this import hassle worthwhile - for a US based Company like Mountain House they would also have to factor in the exchange rate to ensure that once all these different charges are deducted that they are still making a profit based on their operating cost to make the product in the US

I hope the above helps you have an idea why some products are practically double the price - it is really impossible for the UK price to be the same or slightly more than US price because of the import charges factors.



HMRC RATES FOR MARCH 2013 AND GENERALLY EVERY MONTH
this rate is set for the each month and can be found via the following link
http://customs.hmrc.gov.uk/channelsPort ... OD1_032602


http://customs.hmrc.gov.uk/channelsPort ... CodesTools

[Hamradioop]

SNIP
I hope the above helps you have an idea why some products are practically double the price - it is really impossible for the UK price to be the same or slightly more than US price because of the import charges factors.



HMRC RATES FOR MARCH 2013 AND GENERALLY EVERY MONTH
this rate is set for the each month and can be found via the following link
http://customs.hmrc.gov.uk/channelsPort ... OD1_032602


http://customs.hmrc.gov.uk/channelsPort ... CodesTools

Best explanation I have seen on importing from the states.

[unsure]

if your quick and want to get some . the 10% off might help .

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1smbn5ihtQ

[cedders73]

Because of the import charges, VAT and handling fees - and can get very complicated for bulk imports and specifically the type of imports

Mountain House have a European website with manufacture facilities in the UK so none of the above would be relevant if you order from there but still a bit too expensive for me. The menus are not the same that they sell in the state, less choice in my opinion. the address is:

http://www.mountainhouse.eu/

Would they give a good discount if placing large order?

[Selfsufficientwoman]

Mountain House have a European website with manufacture facilities in the UK so none of the above would be relevant if you order from there but still a bit too expensive for me. The menus are not the same that they sell in the state, less choice in my opinion. the address is

Yes but it doesn't necessarily mean all the products are European/UK sourced - also the mylar packaging cost more in the EU/UK to produce than US - so they may opt to import the packaging (which all the import taxes etc apply and then fill in the UK.

You rightly pointed out also the menu options - some of their ingredients in the US are either grown or imported to the US at very competitive rates - not available in the UK/EU or items may be available but maybe not produced in EU/UK and have to be imported - when factoring in those costs- doesn't make sense to offer the option over here - so import rates etc do apply at some stage in the process.

Many of the foods we eat everyday are imported from all over the world - so it is not unreasonable that Mountain House would not be exempt from this.

Cheaper to invest in a dehydrator and just dehydrate all the foods you eat and pack in mylar methinks