Practice
EU Mandate & Co. works in two directions: UK and US businesses establishing operations in the European Union, and Ukrainian manufacturers entering the United Kingdom, the European Union and the United States.
Entity, VAT, product compliance and operations in Poland, coordinated under a single engagement.
Explore EU Entry → For Ukrainian manufacturersMarket readiness, commercial strategy, and the structure a Western buyer needs before it can contract with you.
Explore the Ukrainian Practice →For UK and US Businesses
Seven interlocking practices that together form a complete EU operational architecture. Each is delivered as part of a coordinated programme, from the initial structuring diagnostic through to ongoing governance, under a single Master Services Agreement. Engagements are scoped to the client.
The Anchor Practice
Comprehensive corporate entity structuring, product safety compliance, and proactive regulatory navigation. We provide end-to-end advisory on EPR scheme registration, technical product documentation, and CE marking guidance — serving as your dedicated regulatory counsel as your business scales within the Single Market.
Most fragmented adviser panels solve isolated questions: "is my VAT filing correct," "do I need GPSR," "where should the entity be domiciled." None of them owns the whole architecture, which is where institutional risk accumulates. This practice exists to hold that whole — coordinating the regulatory, fiscal, and operational picture as a single moving system, not seven separate checklists.
For clients in scaled engagements, this practice functions as a permanent regulatory counsel on retainer — horizon-scanning forthcoming regulation (PPWR, ESPR, deforestation regulation, digital product passports) and translating it into specific board-level action.
Corporate Architecture
Strategic EU company formation tailored to your capital and operational requirements. From rapid Polish Sp. z o.o. setups to identifying the most cost- and time-efficient EU jurisdictions for long-term corporate compliance and minimal ongoing overhead.
Incorporation is a strategic decision, not an administrative one. The jurisdiction you choose, the shareholding structure you adopt, and the legal form you select all determine your future tax posture, your VAT registration obligations, your ability to access the Polish Investment Zone, and your exposure to Permanent Establishment risk in the markets you sell into.
We work to the brief, not to a template. For most UK and US clients selling physical goods into the Single Market, a Polish Sp. z o.o. is the optimal structure. For clients with specific tax, IP, or holding-company requirements, alternative jurisdictions are assessed before we commit to a recommendation.
Fiscal Governance
Full-scale management of EU VAT, IOSS, and OSS registration. We handle ongoing multi-jurisdictional tax compliance across all EU member states, mitigating Permanent Establishment risk and streamlining cross-border financial reporting.
VAT is where most cross-border programmes quietly accumulate liability. The interaction between Polish VAT registration (required where stock is held), the One Stop Shop (for distance sales to EU consumers), the Import One Stop Shop (for shipments under €150 from outside the EU), and the various national reporting regimes is where untrained advisers most often produce confident but incorrect answers.
We coordinate qualified Polish accounting and tax advisers for filing, and own the strategic posture: which registrations are required, which are optional, which create exposure, and how the architecture evolves as the July 2026 removal of the €150 EU import duty threshold takes effect.
We do not publish fixed pricing for EU entry programmes. They vary too materially in scope, complexity, and timeline to be reduced to standard packages without distorting the work.
Recent engagements have ranged from single-jurisdiction structuring assignments through to complex multi-entity restructures involving Polish Investment Zone analysis, supply chain redesign, and coordinated entity launches across multiple EU markets. Every engagement begins with a diagnostic call at no cost, followed by a documented scope of work and fixed-fee proposal.
Regulatory Representation
Coordination of your obligations under the General Product Safety Regulation: putting the right EU Responsible Person in place, maintaining technical documentation, and managing liaison with market surveillance authorities. Once you have your own EU entity, it can hold the role itself.
Since December 2024, GPSR has required every product placed on the EU market to have an economic operator established in the EU who is responsible for it. For clients without an EU entity, we identify and put in place an appropriate Responsible Person arrangement. For clients with their own Polish entity, that entity can hold the role itself — structurally more defensible, contractually cleaner, and aligned with the entity's regulatory standing — and we coordinate the obligations that come with it.
Either way, the practical work is the same: maintaining technical documentation, responding to market surveillance authorities, coordinating product safety investigations, and ensuring labelling on physical goods carries the correct Responsible Person identification.
Operational Infrastructure
End-to-end supply chain localisation. From institutional 3PL selection and contract negotiation to bespoke own-warehouse setup — including industrial site selection, structural fit-out, and operational launch coordination across Poland and the wider CEE region.
The decision between a contracted 3PL and a wholly-owned warehouse is consequential and is usually made too early in most market entry programmes. We treat it as a structured decision: projected volume, SKU profile, return rates, customer-promise speed, capital availability, and PIZ eligibility all feed the assessment. The output is a recommendation grounded in numbers, not in a logistics partner's sales deck.
For 3PL engagements, we run formal selection processes against a panel of Polish operators, audit candidates on commercial and operational terms, and negotiate framework agreements that protect the client commercially through scale. For own-warehouse, we coordinate site selection, structural fit-out, and the operational launch sequence end to end.
Human Capital
Advisory on workforce deployment and local presence. We coordinate executive search, recruitment partners, and onboarding for clients building real operational substance in Poland — from core logistics personnel through to senior operational management.
Substantive EU presence requires substantive local people. The "presence in a box" model — an empty entity with a nominee director and no employees — is increasingly fragile against fixed-establishment tests, customer due diligence, and the operational realities of running a warehouse or commercial team.
We do not operate as a recruitment agency. We work alongside clients to define role specifications, coordinate qualified Polish search and recruitment partners, and structure the onboarding and Polish-law employment arrangements through specialist counsel. The objective is real local substance, properly contracted.
Capital Optimisation
Strategic advisory on European Union funding structures and the Polish Investment Zone (PIZ). We identify available tax exemptions and capital grant programmes, assess client eligibility, and coordinate qualified Polish advisers through application and award.
Poland operates one of the more meaningful tax-incentive regimes in the EU. The Polish Investment Zone allows qualifying investments to receive up to 70% corporate income tax exemption on profits generated by a new investment, for periods extending to fifteen years. Eligibility is technical and dependent on capex thresholds, regional location, sector, and employment commitments.
We do not file PIZ applications ourselves — that is the work of qualified Polish tax counsel and PAIH-registered advisers. Our role is to assess client eligibility at the structuring stage, model the financial impact alongside conventional tax posture, and coordinate the application process with the right specialist partners. For clients with capex programmes above the relevant thresholds, this can materially reshape the economics of the EU entry.
For Ukrainian Manufacturers
Many capable Ukrainian manufacturers are shut out of the UK, the EU and the US for reasons unrelated to their product. We work in stages, so that no manufacturer commits to a full programme before the opportunity has been tested.
The obstacles are rarely about what a manufacturer produces. There is no entity a Western buyer can contract with. Compliance obligations cannot be held from outside the market. Tender documents exclude a foreign supplier before anyone examines the product. And there is often nobody in the room able to negotiate in English.
First conversations can be held in Ukrainian with Roman Dupai, our Principal, Market Expansion (Ukraine), who is based in Ternopil. Negotiations with Western counterparties are led by Elliot Rodgers, in English.
A written assessment of whether your certification, pricing, warranty terms and commercial presentation will stand up to a Western buyer, and which markets to prioritise. Delivered within 7–10 working days, followed by a decision call with your management.
Competitor research, a market-entry strategy, and the qualification of distributors and importers, followed by direct approaches to counterparties and support through negotiation.
Coordination of the structure, compliance and operations needed to trade, and ongoing representation in the market, scoped to what the launch actually requires.
Engagement
We welcome enquiries from directors and senior commercial leaders of UK and US businesses entering the EU, and of Ukrainian manufacturers selling into the UK, the EU and the US. The first call is at no cost. It establishes whether there is anything worth doing, and is the basis for a documented scope of work.
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