advice for setup new business

[Sammy_HO]

Hi there,

I'm new with the vaping industry in the UK. I want to settle up my business here in the UK but there are so many regulations that I need to fulfil before I can start to sell my product. Since I'm an international student, I have limited access to do businesses here in the UK and need advice for it.
my questions are:
1. Do I need to set up my own company here in the UK before I can register for TPD?
2. There are many TPD services on the internet, which one is the most reliable and fastest way to register for TPD?
3. Do I need to register my products if it is 0nicotine/ shortfill ?

Thank you





NB: one of my product is saltnic liquid that produces no liquid after inhalation.

 

[Mr Ripple]

1) You're going to need to do more reading up on the TPD Tobacco Products Directive cos its the products you intend to sell that have to be TPD compliant not the business itself.

2) Again refer back to 1 but don't know how you get your products registered.

3) Shortfills or zero nic juices do not generally have to be tpd compliant however there are some additives that that are banned from being included in vape juice.

4) Hi and welcome.

 

[MrDJ]

hi and welcome to the planet.
can you tell us what sorts of products are you hoping to sell.
your own brand or well known makes
the max nic strength is 20mg in the uk in 10ml bottles. the norm is 3-18mg nicotine or 20mg nic salts
ready mixed with nicotine in 10ml bottles is roughly £2500 per flavour per nic strength to go through testing.

 

[Rickster]

ready mixed with nicotine in 10ml bottles is roughly £2500 per flavour per nic strength to go through testing.

It would be interesting to know this cost, I suspect it's not even close to £2500 these days ....probably a couple of hundred quid max, would be my guess.

 

[Deleted member 58360]

It would be interesting to know this cost, I suspect it's not even close to £2500 these days ....probably a couple of hundred quid max, would be my guess.

It is quite interesting actually.

I'm perfectly willing to be proven wrong on any of the following...

There apparently isn't one particular lab that does tpd testing, it's open market. You can select whichever lab you like to do the test and produce the report.

There does seem to be an ISO spec for the minimum test requirements, apparently (again) some labs don't fully comply yet are willing to provide the report, others test well over the minimum and charge more.

One consultancy states that the test fee ranges from £70 to £900 per submission depending on which lab you choose - but warns too low may indicate insufficient testing and too high is either overcharging or doing more than required.

I don't know if there's a regulatory listing fee (likely, going off other industries), or what the consultancy charges are. It could well be that the test itself is something like £500 but the associated declarations, listings and other fees bump that up significantly.

 

[oORobOo]

Better?

 

[Mr Ripple]

Hello, I would advise doing the research yourself online as you are likely to be mis-informed from forum users on this particular matter.

Setting up a Company/registering for tax etc is a very simple process here in the UK so I can't imagine you would have any problems with that.

You may not need to register for TPD if you are a reseller sourcing in the UK, if you are making your own products, importing products or re-labelling products you are considered a producer and would need to.

The most important thing for you to know is that as a producer you must submit any products you wish to sell to the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency 6 months before you intend to put them on sale... If you are a re-seller the products MUST already be on the MHRA's list.

I think the testing cost posted above is greatly exaggerated... My Company produces items for medical waste disposal and asbestos removal and I currently pay £750 to have a product tested then £250 for additional products... I imagine vaping products are probably less than this amount. Lab testing companies prices vary greatly and will require a lot of research on your behalf, the more products you have the less it will be per unit to have them tested.

If you plan to be a producer I imagine you would need a suitable premises, inspection, hygiene rating etc however I am not a producer so I am not 100% sure on this.

You will need to take things like insurance costs into account which (for public liability) I imagine these costs are quite high for vaping products... If you plan to sell to other businesses you would also benefit from ISO certification such as ISO 9001:2015 to prove to companies you have a good business process/management system... This can cost around £2000 to be set up if using a external company and needs to be renewed every year (think it's something like £600). A lot of companies will not deal with you if you do not have this kind of certification.

It's all a relatively simple process but it is time consuming and expensive, again you are better off to research elsewhere.

So you've just told the OP the advice on here is likely to be misinformed and they ought to research elsewhere.

You've then carried on and offered the OP advice!
What a Lemon!

 

[oORobOo]

So you've just told the OP the advice on here is likely to be misinformed and they ought to research elsewhere.

You've then carried on and offered the OP advice!
What a Lemon!

Yeah he is better off to research elsewhere and confirm any information he receives on here.

I wouldn't consider my post to be 'advice' apart from where I advised to seek advice elsewhere, I stated very loosely a few steps in the process that he would need to research and gave him examples of costs that I have had when releasing regulated products.

Not necessary to go around calling people Lemons is it

 

[MrDJ]

as far as i know and going by feedback from a couple of vendors the price for testing when the law changed was £2500 back in 2016
im not a vendor so in the 3 years of tpd prices could well of changed and lowered considerably

 

[Deleted member 58360]

as far as i know and going by feedback from a couple of vendors the price for testing when the law changed was £2500 back in 2016
im not a vendor so in the 3 years of tpd prices could well of changed and lowered considerably

Supply and demand...

A big surge of demand to get it done just before tpd came in coupled with a limited choice of labs geared up to do it would lead to higher prices initially.

Then as demand dies down a bit (only new stuff rather than the need to get everything already on the market approved) and more labs start competing the price drops down.