Snapshot

company: Supreme plc (LSE AIM: SUP; Companies House 05844527) - a listed UK manufacturer, brand owner and distributor of FMCG products (batteries, lighting, vaping, sports nutrition/wellness, branded distribution, soft drinks), HQ 4 Beacon Road, Trafford Park, Manchester M17 1AF
sells: Vaping is a core division: it MANUFACTURES e-liquid in-house at VN Labs (Trafford Park, ISO class 7) - the company states VN Labs produces over 6m bottles of e-liquid a month - owns in-house vape brands (88Vape, Liberty Flights, 88Nic), and is UK master distributor for Elf Bar and Lost Mary and a distributor for SKE
category: UK vape MANUFACTURER + IMPORTER/master DISTRIBUTOR - the flagship ICP profile: a firm that both manufactures duty-liable vaping liquid and imports/holds third-party brands, so it faces VPD registration, duty stamps and monthly excise returns across a large product base
model: Listed group; vaping revenue grew ~GBP 20m in the reported period and the group reported record revenue at FY26 final results (1 July 2026). Retained major retail customers through the June 2025 disposables ban by moving them to pod systems
size: Listed plc, multi-division; VN Labs alone cites 300,000+ bottles per 8-hour shift / 6m+ bottles a month. Precise headcount not captured here
leadership: Founder/CEO Sandy Chadha (Sandeep Singh Chadha, with the business since 1988, director since 2017); CFO Suzanne Smith (joined Aug 2020); other board directors per Companies House: Mark Richard Cashmore, Simon Martin Lord, Paul Andrew McDonald; company secretary Kevin Joseph Curry
hq: Trafford Park, Manchester, UK

All recent triggers

CEO stated the group adapted manufacturing for digitised tax stamps, reviewed packaging and applied for duty-suspension arrangements ahead of VPD - an active, public VPD readiness programme source
In-house e-liquid manufacturing at VN Labs (Trafford Park), 6m+ bottles/month - large volume of duty-liable product needing stamps + monthly returns source
UK master distributor for Elf Bar and Lost Mary (appointed 2023) and distributor for SKE - imported/held stock that falls in VPD scope source
VPD live 1 Oct 2026 at GBP 2.20/10ml; manufacturers/importers/warehousekeepers need HMRC approval, duty stamps, monthly returns; civil penalties for failure (per HMRC) source

Pain hypotheses

From 1 October the group must file monthly excise returns and reconcile duty stamps across a large in-house manufactured range plus imported third-party brands - a recurring, high-volume compliance workload, not a one-off
Duty-suspension/warehousekeeping arrangements and import declarations/classification need to tie together with the excise returns; doing this across manufacturing + import + distribution in separate systems invites manual error and penalty exposure
The load is permanent and monthly from 1 Oct, so the question is less 'get ready' and more 'run it efficiently at volume without adding heavy manual overhead' - which is where a single customs+excise system fits
HONEST FIT CAVEAT: Supreme has publicly said it is well-resourced and well-prepared and treats VPD as a competitive advantage, so it may already have internal systems/resource in train; the wedge is ongoing efficiency and de-risking monthly returns/duty-stamp reconciliation, and the outreach must respect that they are ahead, not behind

ICP-fit score

74/100
None

Sources

tradingview.com · uk.finance.yahoo.com · supreme.co.uk · 2firsts.com · find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk · investors.supreme.co.uk · gov.uk