Work from our workshop
We are a small workshop near Timisoara, making kitchens, wardrobes and commercial fit-out to architects' drawings since 2016. This page covers what we make, how a shipment is handled at the border, and where responsibility sits on supply-only work compared with supply and install.
Fine Cut Furniture is a small team in Giarmata, about ten minutes from Timisoara in western Romania. We have made fitted furniture since 2016 and run every stage ourselves: design, production drawings, CNC cutting, ABS edge banding, pre-assembly, and installation by our own people in our own vehicles. Installation is never subcontracted.
For a UK practice the effect is a short chain: you deal with the people who cut the panels, and whoever fits them on site works for the same company.
We take drawings as DXF, DWG, SKP, STL or dimensioned PDF. The sequence is the same on every job, domestic or export: site measurement, a 3D design you approve before anything is cut, a quotation itemised per cabinet and per material, and a deadline in the contract. Production runs about three to four weeks after 3D approval. For a kitchen, allow roughly five to eight weeks from measurement to installation, with transport on top.
A shipment from Romania to England, Scotland or Wales is an import. It needs an import declaration, plus a safety and security entry summary declaration, which has applied to EU-to-GB movements since 31 January 2025 and is legally the carrier's responsibility.
Duty is usually the smaller question. The EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement gives a zero tariff on goods meeting the preferential rules of origin, but it is not automatic. The importer claims preference on the customs declaration and must hold proof: a statement on origin from us in the prescribed wording, or importer's knowledge. As an EU exporter we need a REX number above EUR 6,000; the statement is kept four years.
Import VAT is separate. A VAT-registered UK business can use postponed VAT accounting, declaring import VAT on its VAT return instead of paying at the border. In most arrangements the UK buyer is the importer of record. Delivered-duty-paid terms change who needs the GB EORI and who can recover the VAT, so raise it before we quote. Your customs agent or accountant should confirm both for your own shipment.
Northern Ireland is not handled like Great Britain. Under the Windsor Framework, EU VAT rules continue to apply in Northern Ireland in respect of goods, and a movement from Romania is generally treated as an intra-community acquisition rather than a Great Britain import, with the buyer using an XI-prefixed VAT number towards EU suppliers. Confirm the treatment with your customs agent before planning around it.
Two product points are worth raising early. The Furniture and Furnishings (Fire) (Safety) Regulations 1988, as amended, are built around furniture containing upholstery, setting requirements for fillings, composites and covers. A carcase kitchen or fitted wardrobe with no upholstered element sits differently from a banquette seat or padded headboard, so where upholstered elements are included the required test evidence should be named in the drawings and agreed before production.
Separately, whoever first places timber products, furniture included, on the GB market is the operator under the UK Timber Regulation and carries the due diligence duty. On supply-only work that is normally you; we provide the supply chain information.
These are two different jobs, worth deciding between before we price the work.
Supply only means we manufacture, pre-assemble, pack and hand the consignment to a carrier booked through a freight exchange. It arrives at the address you give us and your own fitters take over. It is the cheaper route and suits contractors already on site. Responsibility on arrival sits with the buyer as importer of record, on the contract terms.
Supply and install means our own vans and our own workshop team travel to site and fit the furniture, the same people who pre-assembled it in Giarmata. It is never passed to a third-party fitter. Because sending a crew to the UK involves arrangements beyond the goods, we settle those per project rather than offering a standard package: access dates, site conditions, storage and the paperwork required.
Either way you get the same itemised quotation, the same 3D approval before cutting, and a date in the contract. What changes is where responsibility passes from us to you, which we would rather write down than leave implied.
Under the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement, goods meeting the preferential rules of origin attract a zero tariff. It is not automatic: you claim preference on the import declaration and must hold proof, normally a statement on origin from us in the prescribed wording, kept four years. The rate depends on the commodity code, so have your customs agent confirm it.
In most arrangements the UK buyer is the importer of record, holds the GB EORI and instructs the customs agent. A VAT-registered buyer can use postponed VAT accounting, declaring import VAT on the same return rather than paying at the border. Delivered-duty-paid terms change who can recover the VAT, so raise it before the quotation.
Allow roughly five to eight weeks from site measurement to installation, with production about three to four weeks after you approve the 3D design. Transport sits on top. Supply-only consignments travel with a carrier booked through a freight exchange; supply-and-install jobs travel in our own vans with our own team. The date goes into the contract.
The border treatment differs. Under the Windsor Framework, EU VAT rules still apply in Northern Ireland for goods, so a Romanian consignment is generally handled as an intra-community acquisition using an XI VAT number rather than as a Great Britain import. Manufacture and installation are unchanged. Ask your customs agent to confirm the position for your shipment.
Drawings as DXF, DWG, SKP, STL or dimensioned PDF, the delivery address, and whether you want supply only or supply and install. We come back with a 3D design for approval and a quotation itemised per cabinet and per material, so you can see where the cost sits. Nothing is cut until you sign off the 3D.
Tell us what the project is, where in the UK it goes, and whether you want supply only or supply and install. Send DXF, DWG, SKP, STL or a dimensioned PDF to info@finecutfurniture.ro, or call +40 799 689 358, Monday to Friday, 10:00-15:00 Romanian time.