Matthew Bishop with VATIT STREAM

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

MD&M West, industrial innovation, News and Brews, manufacturing challenges, logistics compliance, VAT efficiency, tariffs, medical manufacturing, foreign entity setup, customs regulations, supply chain, global shipments, compliance experts, industry professionals, Anaheim conference.

00:00

Hey! This episode of Industrial Talk is proudly brought to you by MD&M West and the incredible News and Brews team. MD&M West delivered big med tech, automation, packaging, plastics, and design. All came together under one roof. The innovation, the energy, the conversation-it was everything that makes this industry extraordinary. I was on the floor capturing the stories, the breakthroughs, and the leaders who are shaping the future. Thanks for tuning in and celebrating the people driving industrial innovation. Industrial Talk, powered by MD and M West and the News and Brews team.

00:47

Welcome to the Industrial Talk podcast with Scott Mackenzie. Scott is a passionate industry professional dedicated to transferring cutting edge, industry focused innovations and trends while highlighting the men and women who keep the world moving? So put on your hard hat, grab your work boots, and let's go!

01:05

02:38

yeah.

02:39

All right, Matt, are you having a good conference?

02:44

It's been great, Scott. Why? Well, firstly, I've got all my steps in for the week, so I'm happy about that. Somebody came

02:51

by a friend of mine said, "Hey, I got 50,000 steps in. Wow! What the heck?

02:55

Wow, that must be a new record.

02:56

Well, he's located at the other end of this massive complex, and he's coming over here, and and then he goes back over there, and like yeah, of course he's got his steps in in a big way.

03:08

I guess the second part is it's great to connect with people within the industry, right, and and put some faces to names. I'm I'm not from the USA. I'm actually based out in South Africa, funny enough. So it's a little place from a little way from home, but we have a branch out this side, so it's great to shake some hands and meet some people I've I've only seen virtually. But yeah, the show's been phenomenal. Some of the stuff we've seen, the robotic side, the manufacturing side, it's been incredible.

03:34

Man, you had a trip.

03:35

Yeah, it's a short 22 hours. Yeah, yeah, I

03:39

was just getting ready. I'm going, ah, man, the the math is hard for me.

03:43

It's

03:44

amazing. Whereabouts in South Africa?

03:46

I'm based out in Johannesburg. Yeah, not sure if you've you've heard of it before.

03:50

No.

03:51

How about Cape Town? You've heard of Cape Town?

03:53

Oh yeah. Come visit. I've heard it. If if I had a business opportunity there, and and if I was broadcast, I'd be there in a jet second, literally a jet. Well, jet 22 second, 22 hours second. Yeah, I'd be there in a jet. I would love that.

04:08

Yeah, should come visit. I'll definitely host if you do.

04:11

The the there was a company that I was working with for a sugar refinery, and we were deploying their system because down there sugar is a big deal, and they had a system that we were deploying. And anyway, that was my. I never made it to never made it to South Africa. Want to? Hey, what kind of food do you eat?

04:32

What type of food?

04:33

Yeah, give me give me a you know, a a food that's like this is South African.

04:39

Even heard of buruvos?

04:41

No, have not.

04:42

Or Cook Sisters?

04:44

No, have not.

04:46

What else? I mean, we love ribs. We love steak. I think those are big. Oh, you got to

04:50

tell you, got to tell me about the first two. What's what's the basis for that? What what is it? Is it

04:55

buruforce is basically a sausage? Yeah. Oh, yeah. I'm all in. It's. It's beef. It can be anything really, but it's traditionally beef cow, or it can be kudu. It could be any any buck really.

05:08

Oh, okay.

05:09

Cook sisters. Yeah, you want to know about that? Yeah, I do. It's basically it's a dessert. It's like it's like a pastry, but it's dipped in icing sugar and it's it's twisted together.

05:20

Oh, it's

05:20

very good, and deep fried. You put in oil. Oh, of course. Why

05:24

wouldn't you deep fry? Come on. Of course you have to deep fry. That's amazing. Yeah.

05:29

All right. For the listeners out there, Matt, give us a little background on who you are.

05:35

Perfect. So I'm the head of sales for a company called VATIT STREAM, as you mentioned. Yeah, come from a long line of tech sales. Been always in sales myself, and find myself at VATIT STREAM trying to to promote them. Yeah.

05:50

So you're head of global, but but you go back farther than that because if if I'm looking at this logistics compliance, you see, I should have I should have been a little bit more aware of this, it says VAT efficiency value added tax.

06:04

Yeah,

06:04

yeah. See, so now I can get the name VAT it. I got it.

06:08

Yeah.

06:10

All right. But yeah, but how did you get involved? What? What? What? I mean, how long you been with VAT it?

06:17

So been close to a year now. So

06:20

you have more than just VATIT on your yeah yes

06:23

before that I was actually working for a diamond marketplace shut up yeah yeah yeah it's see

06:28

that that to me was like

06:30

get out of here

06:31

also doing sales in the USA from from South Africa itself I was looking after the Texas and Louisiana area and long and short was it was a B 2b diamond marketplace in the U.S. Yeah,

06:42

I'm I'm from Louisiana. Where did you go in Louisiana?

06:46

I wish I went to Louisiana at all, but I was well virtually, I suppose, right? I got you.

06:53

I got you.

06:54

Yeah.

06:54

All right. What are we talking about, VATIT? What's what's what's the problem are we solving with that is impacting manufacturers today?

07:05

Yeah, I mean, look, there's the first part of it is is is a huge headache in regards to tariffs out of the U.S. Yeah, I don't know how you

07:13

keep up with that. Just FYI.

07:14

Yeah, I mean, it's a nightmare at the moment for everybody to navigate. The problem that we solve is is trying to navigate, especially for the for the medical manufacturers in particular, we often find exclusions. Or if you're not moving the goods correctly under the right what you're called HS codes, you'll find that you'll be slapped with those tariffs, maybe unnecessarily, or maybe necessarily. But we are the the experts that are able to navigate that from out of the US and Into the U.S. basically,

07:43

are you country specific when it comes to VATIT? So we

07:49

have four locations worldwide. We have an office in the U.S. in in New York, and then we have an office in the U.K. Netherlands, and then of course South Africa itself. Yeah, but yeah, we are not country specific whatsoever. A big problem that we're also trying to solve for for the medical manufacturing world is is how everyone thinks about getting the manufacturing done, the certificates. You know, all those things are taking place, but no one takes into account the how do I get it there, right? So if you never, that's the problem. So you're having all the the logistics done internally of how I make make the product and how do I make sure it's great, which is perfect. But no one thinks, okay, great. Now the customer is sitting in Portugal or Italy. How do I get it there if they don't want to bring it in themselves? So we put in mechanisms for companies to one set themselves up as a foreign entity within the EU, UK, a number of countries, but those are a kind of country-specific, and we're able to make sure that they can act as their own importer of record. And if they're doing DDP shipments, they're able to also claim the VAT back, which is a huge, huge pain for for US suppliers because a lot of guys just assume you have to pay it, and not aware that they can be getting 21 to 25 percent of their VAT back for their global shipments.

09:08

Take me through a process. I am a I'm a company. I'm manufacturing in Indonesia.

09:19

Okay,

09:20

and all is good. I'm manufacturing. I got it. It's all dead.

09:25

Yep.

09:26

And I need to get it into, let's say, the United States.

09:31

Yeah. Perfect. So.

09:32

So what? What? What? What am I? How are you taking me along on that journey?

09:37

Amazing. So so one thing we're able to do is we are able to set you up in the USA as as a foreign entity within the USA. How long how

09:45

long does that take? But what does that mean?

09:48

Yeah. So what it means is let's start with the how long. It usually takes quite quick, three to four weeks. You can get yourself set up, obviously depending on what documents you have in place. But we we handle that all for you. So we take you through the. Registration, we get you set up with that. I think it's called the CBP number, right? And what it allows you to do, or what it looks like for you then, is you're trading under your Indonesian business, but within the USA. So you're trading as a foreign entity within the USA.

10:15

So I have roots in in the US.

10:18

Yeah. So you're not registered as a business in the USA, but you registered as a foreign entity within the USA, meaning that now you don't have to rely on a company within the USA to import it itself. You could import it to your own company, into transfer company, and then from there distribute it. Now a great thing. Hold it.

10:37

So I'm in Indonesia. I send it to my foreign entity, and then I distribute it from there.

10:43

Essentially, you wouldn't necessarily have to have a physical presence either here, which is great, right? Because we can help with the warehousing and distribution from this side too. We have hubs in New York as well as as Tampa, Florida, where you could essentially ship a bulk shipment into one of those two locations, and if you have a number of companies you're supplying to within the USA, we will actually break it up and distribute it as a as domestic shipments, basically, instead of sending one shipment to each location from Indonesia, basically. Then

11:17

after that's done, you've set me up. I've shipped my product to your warehouse. You're breaking it up. You're you're then just delivering it to the end user. Where's my where's my financial kickback here?

11:33

Yeah. So coming into the USA, I mean, you don't get charged sales tax coming into the USA, right? The bigger kickback is if you're not distributing your goods correctly under the right HS codes or HS HTS codes, you might be slapped with a higher tariff than if you had to ship the goods because there's a lot of in-between products, if I can put it like that, where we can help identify those exemption codes for you and and hopefully writes off. Now it's never guaranteed, but we're able to walk you through that effectively.

12:07

Does your company? How does your company's pretty much today? I mean, it's how do you internally deal with all of the the changes taking place in the world of logistics and being able to sort of stay current, and because it's dynamic out there. Don't get me wrong. Oh yeah, it's not it. In in the best of times, it's still very challenging. So now it's like it's it's super challenging. How what do you guys do to to ensure that you're doing okay?

12:43

Yeah, well, I mean, the truth is the goalposts are always changing. Yeah, I don't

12:47

know how you do it. That's the reality.

12:50

13:29

for a lousy job?

13:30

Yeah, I mean, I'd rather be in sales. That's why I'm here. They, they are, they like fire. What would you call it? Fire. Firefight. Firefighters. Yeah, yeah, they like

13:42

that. God bless them.

13:43

Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. Firefight

13:45

away.

13:46

Shout out to them, Becca. Yeah,

13:49

gosh. So that's pretty cool because I because that the reality is is that we we want, especially in the world of manufacturing. Yeah, yeah. Do you do the same? You know, I took the I took the analogy of Indonesia into the United States. Yeah. What about United States into South Africa? That's a that's a easy one. Yeah. That one. I mean, come on.

14:13

I mean, absolutely. And I think a lot of guys. Well, speaking to the guys on the ground here, a lot of guys are exploring the African markets because it's somewhat untapped and there's not as much competition, so we absolutely help with with that movement. Right, we can get you set up, and if you're shipping globally, like a lot of guys here have a number of locations where they they're bringing goods from. It's not just the United States. So let's say they bring it in from Europe into South Africa. We have mechanisms of avoiding those customs and tariffs because you can get what you would call a euro one. That way you'd be able to skip the tariffs. So it's all those type of mechanisms, and it all depends on what product you're shipping. But we have a number of of industries that we work into. But yeah, in South Africa it's easy, really.

14:58

Yeah, because. The way I also see it is that many of these companies here that they have the final manufacturing, but they they source their products from various places around the world, and and and it's just you know it sort of begins to compound. I try not to yeah it it just that complexity that that documentation that and to be able to ensure that you're not, well, taking it in the shorts.

15:27

Yeah,

15:27

financially, you're doing it as efficient as you possibly can.

15:31

Absolutely right. And you mentioned complexity. Yeah, I mean that's exactly it. Everywhere is complex, and every country has different rules and regulations. It becomes a nightmare, to be honest, for for a lot of companies, and a lot of guys will be able to do it, but it's chunky. It's it's not it's not clean, and you you're kind of flirting with the idea of getting your goods stuck, because if you don't have the right things in place or the right compliance in place, yeah, your goods will be stopped, and they might be held in

16:00

tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick cost cost.

16:04

Right, and a lot of these goods are very expensive goods that they can't be sitting, and you're dealing with a lot of guys in hospitals. How does the hospital have a time to wait for a week? And that's why that's why we had the show. Really, is because we're seeing a lot of U.S. customers missing missing those customers because then they're rather sourced from a European company rather than the USA, because it's much easier. So we make it as simple as a US company supplying into, let's say, Europe or the UK. It makes it feel like a domestic shipment because of the mechanisms we have in place. Really,

16:37

where do you see all of this going? When do you when do you think things will start to settle down?

16:43

That's a loaded question, Scott. It is a loaded question. I have

16:46

no answer. I was hoping you would have an answer, and it's not me. That's for sure, because I think it's, I think it's, it's an interesting time.

16:54

No, I mean Scott, it's not tomorrow. Let's be honest. It's I don't see it going away in the near future, really, because as we as we go along, there's more there's more what would you say arguments between the two countries, and everyone's trying to get as much money out of the other as possible, which adds more complexity onto the entire thing, right? So I don't see it being solved any time soon. I mean, we're trying to solve it every single day, and and as they add new laws, we're we're having to solve or put in a new playbook on how to move those goods or get the VAT and customs as as low as possible. So, in in short, I don't see it being solved anytime soon, really, or calming down. Yeah,

17:32

but but but for us to live this manufacturing dream, yeah, we got to be able to have the ability to be able to move our products wherever the market demands those products, and and to do it as efficiently and as painlessly as possible, I think would be key. Makes makes for a successful business model. There you go. How do people get a hold of you, Matt?

17:57

Scott, I am on LinkedIn. They can catch me online, VATIT STREAM.com. But yeah, LinkedIn Matthew Bishop VATIT STREAM.

18:05

You were outstanding.

18:07

Thank you, sir. Yeah, I enjoyed it. It's

18:08

19:20

You're listening to the Industrial Talk Podcast Network

19:32

again. MD&M West brought to you by those wonderful people at Informa. They do not disappoint. That was an absolutely stellar event. You go there, you get to see all of the incredible solutions and the technology and and people that are just passionate about your success. It's the future. It's it's been the future. I don't even know if I. I don't know if the math works out. It's always going to be there. We need to succeed in manufacturing, and you need to be at MD&M West next time. I'll be there, news and brews, telling the story of why these people are so incredible. Speaking of incredible people, Matt Bishop, his stat card right there. As I point to it, his stat card is Matthew Bishop. Anyway, the the organization is is VATIT, which is V A T I T STREAM. I'm probably butchered it. I know it's in the. I guarantee it's in the podcast. I tried. I'm worn out by that one, but it is incredible. You know, all of these manufacturers-they're making their stuff. They need to get it to it. That that whole supply chain, doing it effectively, without you know losing your hair like I have, or or getting gray or whatever. No drama. Yeah, that's good. That's good supply chain. No drama supply. Hey, if anybody wants to create a company saying no drama supply chain, go right at it. It's yours. All right. That was a wonderful event. Wonderful conversation. Reach out to him. All the contact information will be out on Industrial Talk. Again, MD and M West. You put that one on your calendar. It's important, and that whole Informa team. They have so many other events throughout the year, all of them. Top drawer, absolutely top drawer, top shelf. There you go. You need to do that. All right, be bold, be brave. Dare greatly hang out with Matt, and you will be changing the world. We're gonna have another great conversation, as always, coming to you shortly. So stay tuned.