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      Customer Story

      Increased control and reduced costs by bringing customs in-house

      Industry
      Food Packaging
      Country
      Belgium, United Kingdom
      Category
      deSter1

      If your organisation is mature enough, I strongly recommend automating and bringing your customs operations in-house. This approach provides the control, knowledge and insight into your business, to implement process improvements and realise significant cost savings.

      Steven Gyssels
      Director Supply Chain Europe & Global Logistics, deSter

      About deSter

      deSter is a leading provider of innovative and sustainable food packaging and serviceware concepts to the aviation, hospitality, and foodservice industries. The company combines over 40 years of manufacturing expertise with the latest developments in product design. deSter has production units in Hoogstraten (BE), Barcelona (ES), Lima (US) and Prachinburi (TH), in addition to global sales offices. In their dedication to sustainability and diversifying their product range, deSter aims to make all products reusable, recyclable, or compostable by 2025. Since 2007, deSter has been part of Gategroup, a global food and hospitality company offering a full suite of culinary experiences and services. www.dester.com

       

       

       
      deSter2

      Outsourcing or in-housing customs. What to choose?

      C4T and deSter have worked together on various consulting projects for over a decade. When the relationship with their freight forwarder, including an in-house customs broker, came to an end in 2023, deSter decided to re-evaluate its processes. This event prompted deSter to reopen discussions with C4T about insourcing its customs operations.

      This analysis revealed that deSter had limited visibility into their customs activities, a lack of control over their data, and an increasing reliance on their freight forwarder. To address these challenges, deSter explored several options, including outsourcing to a new carrier, working with another customs broker, or bringing customs in-house. After consulting with various industry experts, deSter concluded that automation was the future of customs and decided to take the leap and bring their customs operations in-house.

      “At first, we were hesitant to adopt a software solution due to our limited customs knowledge and concerns about increased workload for our employees. However, after seeing the benefits of CAS, we were able to train our staff, and with CAS’ exception-management, there is no need for in-depth customs knowledge or extra staff. The software flags errors and you can easily correct them.” - Steven Gyssels, Director Supply Chain Europe & Global Logistics at deSter.

      The road to customs automation

      Adopting a software solution can be a time-consuming process, but for deSter, it wasn’t. Thanks to seamless collaboration between our teams, deSter submitted its first declaration just three months after signing the contract in December 2023. The project was broken down into phases, and the full implementation is on track to go live by the end of June 2024.

      “CAS takes away the complexity. Once the setup is complete, the declaration process becomes straightforward and consistent. CAS notifies us of any customs errors or missing data, and we rarely log in to CAS. It’s an upfront investment that pays off very quickly.” - Steven Gyssels, Director Supply Chain Europe & Global Logistics at deSter.

      deSter relies on CAS to handle all of its customs formalities within Europe for both exports from and imports into Belgium, as well as its bonded warehousing. In addition, they use the Single Message Double Filing functionality to ship their products to the UK, using RBC Customs as their partner. This arrangement provides deSter with an additional trade channel in the UK, facilitated by UK representation through one of C4T’s partners.

      The result

      While cost savings are often a major driver, the increased control and visibility offered by CAS convinced deSter to insource customs. Managing their customs processes in-house gives deSter the valuable knowledge and insights they were looking for and has enabled them to improve their processes while realising efficiencies along the way. Employees are trained on general customs topics and know how to resolve any issues that arise in CAS without the need for extensive customs knowledge. deSter can now manage their declaration processes themselves, without hiring additional staff.

      “If your organisation is mature enough, I strongly recommend automating and bringing your customs operations in-house. This approach provides the control, knowledge and insight into your business, to implement process improvements and realise significant cost savings.” - Steven Gyssels, Director Supply Chain Europe & Global Logistics at deSter.

      deSter3

      With CAS, we’ve achieved remarkable savings of 25% to 30% in administrative costs alone by moving to software instead of relying on customs brokers.

      Steven Gyssels
      Director Supply Chain Europe & Global Logistics, deSter
      Discover more

      Accelerate with CAS

      Designed to simplify customs management for organisations, CAS is a comprehensive solution that automates customs and trade compliance processes. Start with the functionality that will provide your company with the most immediate automation, value and add-on modules as you grow to optimise your customs operations.

      Single message, double filing

      Single message, double filing

      With one single message, CAS simultaneously files an export declaration from the country of departure and an import declaration in the country of destination, combined with transit to ensure frictionless border crossing.
      Compliance

      Compliance

      Legal content is natively included and constantly updated, future-proofing your customs management from changes in legislation. Global and country-specific legal content is available and kept up to date in CAS to feed the different modules based on legal provisions, tariff and tariff measures such as TARIC codes, duty rates, declaration codes etc.
      Special Procedures

      Special Procedures

      Take advantage of special duty regimes that allow you to store, temporarily use, process, or repair your goods and get either suspension, partial or complete relief from import duty. The use of automated Customs Special Procedures can be beneficial for companies dealing with processing, distribution, and other manufacturing activities that are subject to high duty rates.

      Single message, double filing

      Single message, double filing

      With one single message, CAS simultaneously files an export declaration from the country of departure and an import declaration in the country of destination, combined with transit to ensure frictionless border crossing.
      Compliance

      Compliance

      Legal content is natively included and constantly updated, future-proofing your customs management from changes in legislation. Global and country-specific legal content is available and kept up to date in CAS to feed the different modules based on legal provisions, tariff and tariff measures such as TARIC codes, duty rates, declaration codes etc.
      Special Procedures

      Special Procedures

      Take advantage of special duty regimes that allow you to store, temporarily use, process, or repair your goods and get either suspension, partial or complete relief from import duty. The use of automated Customs Special Procedures can be beneficial for companies dealing with processing, distribution, and other manufacturing activities that are subject to high duty rates.

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