Meridian VAT Add-on allows us to meet the very high expectations that United Biscuits sets itself in respect of its VAT accounting and compliance obligations

UB customer story

Having successfully implemented the VAT Add-on, United Biscuits benefits from reduced VAT compliance risk, as it is no longer required to make manual workarounds.  

United Biscuits is a leading manufacturer and marketer of biscuits throughout Europe and the rest of the world.

It has moved from a business that was focused on its UK and Northern European markets to a business with a global reach. In recent years, United Biscuits has made acquisitions in India, Saudi Arabia and Nigeria, creating manufacturing hubs in key markets and supporting its thriving export business.

Before : Challenges and Opportunities

United Biscuits has established a complex but integrated supply chain designed to meet customer’s expectations on service and delivery. However, the model gives rise to a number complex VAT and Indirect Tax issues. These include: 

  • multiple cross-border VAT registrations
  • extended reverse charge scenarios
  • consignment stock flows
  • movement of own stock from one country to another
  • inter-company supply chains

As a result, the company has found it had become increasingly difficult to handle andautomate its VAT determination and reporting obligations within its SAP environment.

Why Meridian?

  • United Biscuits’ strong preference was for a solution that is native to SAP as developing its own solution as implementing an external tax engine would be too time consuming and disruptive to the business.
  • It was also important that any potential solution be tried and tested in businesses the size of United Biscuits.
  • What particularly attracted us to Meridian was that we could speak with other businesses who had gone through a similar process and implemented the Meridian VAT Add-on in their organisation.

After : Value driven results and improvements in tax efficiencies

  • Having successfully implemented the VAT Add-on, United Biscuits benefits from reduced VAT compliance risk, as it is no longer required to make manual workarounds where the system was previously not determining the VAT in an automated and compliant manner.
  • The business is now able to rely on their SAP system for compliant and automated VAT determination and reporting.

"We are very pleased that we chose Meridian as our partner in this project. Throughout the implementation of the VAT Add-on it has been our view that Meridian is leading the field in this area. Inparticular we now have high degree of control and visibility over VATdetermination within our SAP system.This allows us to meet the very high expectations that United Biscuits sets itself in respect of its VAT accountingand compliance obligations." 

Julian Ogden, United Biscuits Indirect Tax Controller