We’ve Found a Way to Get Gigante to Europe
By Fernando Santos
Good news if you live in the EU: you can order from us again. Cardigans, bags, charms, kits, wool and needles, all of it. When we paused posting to Europe in August, the first thing I wanted was a way to keep sending you Gigante. We’ve found one. It’s called Forward2me, and it takes about five minutes to set up.
Why it goes through the UK
The EU’s new packaging rules mean we can’t post straight to EU addresses for now. The full story is in why we’ve paused shipping to Europe.
We can post to a UK address, though. So we found a partner with one, who takes your parcel the rest of the way.
How Forward2me works
Forward2me is a parcel forwarding company in Lancashire. You sign up, they give you your own UK address, and anything delivered there gets sent on to your door.
- Sign up at forward2me.com. It’s free, and you get your UK address straight away.
- Order from us as normal. At checkout, use your Forward2me address as the delivery address.
- We post it, free. Anything over £30 goes free and tracked within the UK, so it reaches their warehouse at no cost to you.
- They send it on. Forward2me does the customs paperwork and posts it to you. You pay them for that last leg, and pay your country’s VAT when it arrives.
Same wool, same kit. It just travels via the UK.
What it costs: one kit to Luxembourg
So you know what to expect before you order, here’s a typical one: a Regular fit cardigan kit in size S, going to Luxembourg. I picked Luxembourg because it has the lowest VAT in the EU, 17%, and sits in Forward2me’s cheapest price band.
| One kit to Luxembourg | Cost |
|---|---|
| Regular fit cardigan kit, size S | £119.00 |
| Our delivery to Forward2me | Free |
| Forward2me postage, FedEx, 3 working days | £35.73 |
| 10% off Forward2me, with the code we email you | −£3.57 |
| Luxembourg import duty | £2.55 |
| Luxembourg import VAT at 17% | £27.15 |
| Courier fee for collecting the VAT | £14.92 |
| On top of the kit | £76.78 |
| Total at your door | £195.78 |
Before the pause, the same kit cost you £137 with our postage, plus VAT at your door. The biggest extra is the courier’s fee for collecting the VAT, and that’s charged per parcel, not per item.
A few tips before you order
Put it all in one order. Everything together makes one parcel, one postage charge and one courier fee.
No rush. Forward2me keeps parcels free for 30 days, so you can wait for a second order and send them together.
Check your country’s VAT. It runs from 17% in Luxembourg to 27% in Hungary. Swap 17% for your own rate and you have your total.
Patterns reach you instantly
Every pattern is a download, so it reaches you instantly, wherever you are. The same goes for the Design Studio and The Sovereign, our free pattern.
Want us to post to your country directly one day? Tell me. Email info@giganteknits.com with where you are. That’s how I decide where to register first.
Keep reading
Why We’ve Paused Shipping to Europe
The packaging rules behind the pause, and what they cost a studio our size.
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