Pictured - United Kingdom Warehousing Association

32 UKWA AGM Reportthat greater investment in recruitment wouldbring significant returns in terms of subscriptionand membership numbers. Thefact is that we have yet to see the return wehad hoped for. We have net growth, butlow net growth. Our recent recruitmenttelemarketing and mailing campaign hasproduced fresh leads, and Q1 results arepromising, but it is an area where we needto remain fully focused.Linked to the recruitment effort is retentionof existing member companies.Overall we probably have a higher churnrate that some other trade associations, butthe majority of our losses are for reasonsover which we have no control.Consolidation, ceasing trading (voluntary),ceasing trading (compulsory) are the mainreasons for the loss of full members, andassociate members tend to resign if theyare not making an impact on our marketplace. Luckily we have very few who leaveas dissatisfied customers.“We have been concerned that HMRC isaggressively targeting bonded warehouseoperators and revoking the authorisation tostore duty suspended goods ininstances where operators have beenfound not to have held goods under bondfor a relatively short period of time”Last year we conducted a customer surveyof full members which confirmed ahigh level of customer satisfaction.However, it also confirmed a continued lowlevel of awareness of many of our valueadded services, which reminded us that noteveryone visits the web site regularly, orreads every word of Warehouse or everyword of every e-newsletter we produce. Itwas a useful exercise for us and will berepeated annually in January.Sub Committees.The vital work of our standing committeescontinues. Stephen Basey-Fisher hasrecruited new members to the Operationsand Safety committee, and continues hiscampaign to edge the operational barupwards. Maintaining industry standardshas proven to be a challenge. Raising thestandards remains an elusive goal, but onethat Stephen is engaged with. It will nothappen overnight, but Stephen is embarkingon a project to introduce advisory visitsto current UKWA member companies. Theirprimary purpose will be to confirm thatUKWA standards are being maintained,and where they are not, to help and guidethe company back to the required standard.Only when we have completed this project,can we look to raising the standards, andeven then it is not envisaged that the standardswill be compulsory in the firstinstance. The process will be slow. Stephenhas taken a first bold step forward, supportedfully by the Board, and we will be reportingprogress at subsequent meetings.Our Customs and Excise honorary advisers- Alan Powell and Mike Hodge - havehad another busy and frustrating year. Youwill not be surprised to hear that the paceof change at HMRC still hovers betweendead slow and stop, and key issues havenot progressed. There are a number ofcurrent issues. We have been concernedthat HMRC is aggressively targeting bondedwarehouse operators and revoking theauthorisation to store duty suspended goodsin instances where operators have beenfound not to have held goods under bondfor a relatively short period of time.Of course, we accept that it is right thatcompanies are regularly checked to ensurethat they have processes and procedures inplace to store goods under bond in the correctand legal way, but we do not expectHMRC to add unnecessary extra burdens tobusinesses in what are already extremelytough trading conditions.A second issue concerns the widespreadAlcohol and Duty Fraud. Opinion is dividedon the question of the extent of the fraud(somewhere between £.4bn and £1+bnpa), but no one questions that the fraud istaking place. UKWA is, of course, supportiveof the HMRC’s fight against excise dutyfraud (which includes tobacco and oilsfrauds), provided the measures are proportionateand targeted. But we are very disappointedthat if the beer and wine fraud isso great, HMRC is apparently unable to targetand eliminate a finite number of knowncriminal gangs given all Customs’ powersand with a highly specialized investigativewing skilled in covert techniques.It is not as if the hundreds of vehiclesneeded to carry out the fraud are difficult totrack. But it is a fact that HMRC are unableAugust 2012www.ukwa.org.uk