How do I find importers in the United Kingdom?
Reevi team · Updated
Use the free trader search of HMRC, the tax and customs authority of the United Kingdom, on uktradeinfo.com. Search by commodity code or product description to get the registered name and address of companies that declared imports of those goods. HMRC does not publish volumes, values, supplier countries or contacts, so check each name on the Companies House register, rank the names by how recently and how often they imported, and find the right person yourself.
Reevi returns named companies in the United Kingdom that already buy your product, with the reason each fits; searching is free with no account, and a free account (no card needed) shows the full list and verified contacts.
Importer counts for nine products from import records
Companies named as importers in import records filed in the United Kingdom. The data provider does not state the period these records cover.
| Product (HS code) | Importers | Shipments | Declared value | Largest supplying country (about % of shipments) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cotton bed linen (630231) | 357 | 12,227 | $186M | Pakistan 79% |
| Women's dresses (620442, 620443, 620444) | 1,375 | 40,528 | $116M | Vietnam 54% |
| Leather shoes (640399) | 664 | 40,467 | $290M | Vietnam 84% |
| Wooden furniture (940360) | 1,199 | 39,972 | $126M | Vietnam 58% |
| Milled rice (100630) | 291 | 1,726 | $80.7M | India 64% (share of value) |
| Turmeric (091030) | 77 | 172 | $635K | India 50% (share of value) |
| Frozen shrimp (030617) | 175 | 3,080 | $218M | Vietnam 40% |
| Ceramic tiles (690721, 690722, 690723) | 70 | 2,039 | $12.3M | India 57% |
| Stainless steel kitchenware (732393) | 288 | 5,016 | $10.8M | India 85% |
These figures come from import records held by a trade data provider. They do not come from the free trader search of HMRC (His Majesty's Revenue and Customs, the tax and customs authority of the United Kingdom). That is why they include values and supplier countries, which HMRC does not publish. The product pages show counts and supplying countries, not company names. Names come from HMRC's trader search (next section) or from a Reevi search. The provider does not say which months the records span, so some of these companies may have stopped importing. Use the counts to compare products and size your pool. To see whether a company you found still imports, check its HMRC trade history, which shows the years it traded your goods.
A small pool, such as 77 turmeric importers, can be reviewed name by name. Spice importers in Europe covers the wider market. The supplier share shows your competition. India supplied about 85% of recorded stainless steel kitchenware shipments, so an Indian exporter there needs a reason for a buyer to switch, such as finish, pack size or lead time.
For a product not in this table, open the importer directory and pick your product. Each product page shows importer counts, shipments and top supplying countries in every tracked market, so you can see where the United Kingdom ranks before you start.
HMRC's trader search: names and addresses by commodity code
HMRC publishes trader data on uktradeinfo.com. For each trader, it shows: - the registered name and address - whether it imports, exports or both - a description of the goods - when it traded in specific goods The data comes from customs declarations and is updated every month.
- 1
Search by code or by description
Type your commodity code and choose the commodity code filter. If you do not know the code, search by product description instead, for example 'cotton sheets'. A partial code works (HMRC's own example is '08'). For the nine products above, start with the six-digit HS code in the table. For other products, see the guide to finding importers by HS code.
- 2
Filter the table of traders
Results appear on the 'Trader details as a table' tab. Set trader type to imports and year of trade to the latest year. This keeps only companies that declared imports in that year. You can also narrow by postcode or county.
- 3
Rank traders by their history
Select a trader and download its trade history as a CSV file. It shows which goods the trader handled and when. Put traders that imported your code recently and in multiple separate periods at the top. Drop traders whose goods only loosely match yours. The history has no quantities or values, so ask each buyer its yearly volume in your first message.
- 4
Get a name to write to
HMRC gives no contacts. Companies House gives officer names and the registered office address (next section). For an email or phone number, go to the company's own website. If the site lists no buying contact, the Reevi section below shows one more route. For what to write, see the first email to an importer.
Check the company on Companies House before you quote
When a company you do not know sends an enquiry, look it up on the Companies House register before you spend money on samples. You can search by company name, company number or officer name. Companies House states that it does not check the accuracy of what companies file, so treat the register as a starting point.
- Check the status, the registered office address and any filed changes to that address. If the name finds no live company, run the dissolved company search.
- Open the filing history. Note the date of the latest accounts and whether they are full or abridged accounts. Accounts confirm that the company exists and files. They do not show what it imports.
- Note the officers (directors). Check each name in the search for disqualified directors.
- If the registered office differs from the HMRC trader address, ask the buyer why before you go further.
For terms on a first order, see payment terms for a new export buyer. The free buyer check gives a quick first read on who the company is and what it buys. How to verify a foreign buyer covers the deeper checks.
Duty, origin and border rules for a first shipment
| Rule | Who it affects | What to do this week |
|---|---|---|
| Developing Countries Trading Scheme (DCTS). It replaced the earlier Generalised Scheme of Preferences on 19 June 2023. It covers 65 countries in three tiers: Comprehensive, Enhanced and Standard Preferences. It gives lower or 0% tariffs on many products. | Exporters from eligible developing countries. If your country is not among the 65 (see the preference tiers guidance on gov.uk), DCTS rates do not apply to you. | Open the DCTS visualisation tool on gov.uk. Select your country and product, and note the tariff before you quote a landed price. If your country is not in the DCTS, the standard rate is the one published in the UK Global Tariff on gov.uk; ask your buyer which rate its customs broker will use. |
| Graduation notices. A graduation notice changes or ends a country's preferences. It can apply to the whole country or to some of its goods. The gov.uk DCTS collection lists DCTS country graduation notices for Indonesia (19 January 2026) and India (4 September 2026). It also lists a notice for Vietnam (24 November 2022). | Exporters in these countries. Vietnam and India lead eight of the nine rows of the importer table above. | Indonesia and India: read your notice on the DCTS collection page and note when it takes effect. Vietnam: check the preference tiers guidance to see whether Vietnam is on the current DCTS list. In all three cases, do not quote on a DCTS rate until you have checked. |
| Rules of origin. When the scheme launched, 54 HS chapters allowed up to 75% non-originating (imported) inputs, up from 45%. Your chapter is the first two digits of your HS code. Rules of origin changed again on 19 January 2026, so check the current rule for your code in the visualisation tool before you rely on any threshold. | Anyone who uses imported inputs, such as yarn, leather or steel | To claim the preference, gov.uk DCTS guidance says the relevant proof of origin and customs forms must be submitted. Agree with your buyer who prepares which document. |
| IPAFFS (Import of products, animals, food and feed system). The importer or its import agent registers on IPAFFS and notifies the authorities before the goods arrive in Great Britain. This applies to: - products of animal origin (for example frozen shrimp) - composite foods - high-risk food and feed not of animal origin - medium and high risk plants | Seafood exporters, and food exporters whose product falls in one of these groups | Ask the buyer who will raise the notification. That person is responsible from entry until checks finish. |
Who places the order: four buyer types
- Importer-wholesalers hold stock and sell to shops, restaurants or trade customers. They often appear in HMRC and import records under their own name. They usually ask about price, container size and repeat supply.
- Retailer and brand sourcing offices buy own-label goods to their own specification. Expect to be asked for product tests and a factory audit before a first order; ask early which ones.
- Trade and hospitality distributors supply hotels, caterers or builders and buy to a fixed specification. The run below found two of them.
- Sourcing agents place orders for brands that do not import directly. The agent may sign your order while the brand stays in the background.
Ask one question early: "Which company will be the importer of record?" Check that name on HMRC and Companies House, not only the name on the enquiry.
A Reevi search for cotton bed linen buyers
Reevi does the matching step: 1. Go to Find Buyers. 2. Describe your product in one or two sentences and set the United Kingdom as the market. 3. Reevi returns named companies, each with a short reason it fits. You can refine the list in plain words, for example "retail own-label only". 4. Run each company name through the Companies House checks above. A free account gives verified contacts for 5 buyers a month; paid plans add customs import records on each buyer (pricing). Here is a live run, with names removed.
Cotton bed linen from Pakistan, United Kingdom
Search: “100% cotton bed linen (sheets, duvet covers, pillowcases) made in Pakistan, private label available. Importers in the United Kingdom.” · Run on 2026-11-10
| Buyer (name removed) | Country | Why Reevi matched it |
|---|---|---|
| Hotel bed linen supplier | Strong fit, United Kingdom | Offers made-to-spec sheets, duvet covers and pillowcases with private labelling, a direct channel for Pakistan-made cotton bedding. |
| Hospitality linen distributor | Strong fit, United Kingdom | Distributes hotel bed sheets, pillowcases and duvet covers, matching the supplier's product line. |
| Sourcing agent | Good fit, United Kingdom | Sources bulk bed linen from Pakistani mills in United Kingdom sizes; places private label cotton bedding orders. |
| Bed linen supplier | Good fit, United Kingdom | Sources cotton duvet covers and private label bedding from Pakistan, an active trade channel for this product. |
| Luxury bed linen brand | Possible with a catch, United Kingdom | Could source private label cotton bedding to extend its range. Reevi flagged it: 'Possibly a competitor: they may make what you sell.' |
421 potential buyers found. The signed-out view shows the top 5; a free account shows all.
421 is Reevi's count of potential buyers, and it includes hotel suppliers, sourcing agents and brands. 357 is the number of companies that filed cotton bed linen imports (HS 630231) in import records. They measure different things and do not have to match.
Three of the five results are hospitality suppliers or agents, not retailers. A mill that wants retail own-label orders should say so in the search to change the list. Two of the reasons say the company already sources from Pakistan, which HMRC data cannot show. The fifth result is marked as a possible competitor rather than hidden, so you decide whether to contact it.
Questions exporters ask
Why does my commodity code return no traders, or fewer than I expected?
Check the common causes first. The code may not match your goods: run a description search and see which codes come up. The year filter may be too narrow. Traders who asked HMRC to remove their details do not appear. In rarer cases, HMRC may withhold or limit trader details for codes on its current suppressions page on uktradeinfo.com. Each entry shows the flow affected (for example, imports from outside the European Union (EU)), the first month affected, and a suppression level explained in HMRC's suppressions guidance. Most listed codes are chemicals, minerals, plastics, synthetic fibres and metals. For help with the trader search, email uktradeinfo@hmrc.gov.uk.
Does the HMRC trader list include Northern Ireland, and from which year?
It depends on where the goods came from: - From non-EU countries: the data covers businesses across the United Kingdom, including Northern Ireland, from 2016. - From EU countries: it covers only Great Britain (England, Scotland and Wales), from 2022. A Northern Ireland importer that buys only from EU countries will not appear.
I export frozen shrimp. Who files the IPAFFS notification, and what do I send?
The importer or its import agent files it. An agent must register on IPAFFS with its own business details. All import documents must be in electronic format, for example PDF, and must be uploaded to the notification before it is submitted. Send your certificates to the buyer as PDFs well before the goods arrive. For help with a notification for animal products such as shrimp, the gov.uk IPAFFS page says to contact the port health authority at the border control post where the goods enter. Technical problems with IPAFFS go to the Animal and Plant Health Agency helpline on 0330 041 6999.