🎯 The business: an American craft spirit, usually a whiskey, bourbon or gin, made by your own distillery or by a contract distillery under your brand, and sold to an importer in the UK or Japan who pays the local duty and gets it into bars and shops. Both countries have drinkers who seek out American whiskey. Be warned: of all the export ideas in this section, this is the one with the most licenses, and none of them is optional.
At a glance
| Money to start | ≈ $26,300 to $32,300, most of it for the first export run |
| Time to the first export order | About 9 to 12 months for a brand already selling in the U.S. |
| Hours a week in year one | 10 to 20 on export, beside running the brand |
| Skills that matter most | Patience with regulators, storytelling, supporting an importer from far away |
| A realistic income line | Four 1,200-bottle export orders a year at about $4,000 each is $16,000 a year before marketing costs |
Is this for you?
It suits a distillery owner, or a brand owner who already has a spirit made under contract, who sells well at home and wants a second market. It needs someone who reads regulations carefully, keeps records, and can explain the brand’s story to a bartender in London or Tokyo.
It is a poor fit for someone starting from nothing who hopes exports will be the first market. You need a product, a brand and a U.S. license structure before any importer will talk to you. Most craft brands earn little on export in the first year; the payoff is a market that reorders for years.
Who pays, and what
Importers and distributors in the UK and Japan. They buy by the case or the pallet, usually at an export price with the spirit not yet taxed in their country, then pay their own duty and sell to bars, restaurants, specialist shops and online retailers. In the UK, specialist whisky shops and cocktail bars are the usual first accounts. In Japan, bars and import liquor shops in Tokyo and Osaka, and gift buyers.
The importer, not you, pays UK alcohol duty. From 1 February 2026 the UK charges £33.99 per litre of pure alcohol on spirits over 22 percent, so a 70 cl bottle at 40 percent carries about £9.52 of duty (0.7 × 0.40 × £33.99) before VAT at 20 percent. That is why your price is a small part of the shelf price.
What it takes to start
| Licensing help: TTB and state applications, LLC, an hour or two with a beverage lawyer | $1,500 to $3,000 |
| Trademark filings in the UK and Japan | $1,500 to $3,000 |
| UK and Japan label design and a compliance review | $1,000 to $2,000 |
| First export run: 1,200 bottles at an example $14 each, made and bottled | $16,800 |
| Samples, a trade show or a buyer trip | $4,000 to $6,000 |
| Product liability insurance, first year | $1,500 |
| All-in | ≈ $26,300 to $32,300 |
This assumes you already have a spirit and a U.S. license structure. Building a distillery is a separate project that costs far more.
Start to finish: the steps
1. Decide who makes it. Your own distillery, or a contract distillery that holds a federal distilled spirits plant (DSP) permit and makes and bottles your brand. The DSP is the producer of record and usually handles its own federal filings for the product.
2. Get every license in place. A distillery needs its DSP permit from the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) and a state license. A brand owner who buys the bottled spirit and resells it, including for export, generally needs a TTB basic permit as a wholesaler, plus whatever your state requires. Confirm your exact structure with TTB and your state alcohol agency before you sell a bottle.
3. Protect the name. Search and register your brand name in the UK and Japan before you launch there. A name that is free in the U.S. may already be taken abroad.
4. Pick one market first. Japan has a long love of American whiskey and pays well for a story; the UK is a large, crowded market where a clear category, such as a single-grain or rye whiskey, stands out. Doing one well beats doing two badly.
5. Find an importer. Send samples and a short pack: the story, the liquid, awards, U.S. sales, price and what marketing support you will give. Drinks trade shows in London and Tokyo, and FOODEX Japan, are where importers look for new brands.
6. Make the export version. For the UK: 70 cl bottles, because 75 cl is not an allowed size for spirits there, and a label with the UK importer’s name and address, the alcohol strength, the volume and any allergens. For Japan: the importer adds a Japanese label with the required details; give it a full ingredient list.
7. Price it backward from the shelf. Start from where the bottle should sit in a UK or Japanese shop, take off VAT or consumption tax, the retailer’s and importer’s margins and the duty, and see what is left for you. If that does not cover your cost, change the market or the product.
8. Ship it from bond. Spirits exported from a distillery’s bonded premises leave without U.S. federal excise tax, using TTB’s export procedures. Your forwarder books the freight and files the export record; give the importer the documents it needs to clear customs.
9. Support the launch. Visit, run tastings with the importer’s sales team, and help with bar and shop accounts. An importer with a hundred brands sells the ones whose owners show up.
10. Then grow: reorders on a schedule, a second product, and the second country once the first one reorders on its own.
Pricing an order
| 1,200 bottles (70 cl, 40 percent) made and bottled at an example $14 each | $16,800 |
| UK labels and the 70 cl bottling run | $1,200 |
| Freight to the importer’s bonded warehouse and insurance | $1,500 |
| Export documents and samples | $500 |
| Your cost | $20,000 |
| Sold to the importer at $20 a bottle, UK duty unpaid | $24,000 |
| Your margin, before marketing | $4,000 (about 17 percent) |
These are example numbers. Each importer quotes its own margin and terms, and your cost depends on the spirit, its age and the bottle. More in Export pricing, and on who pays which costs in Incoterms.
The math
At the example numbers, one 1,200-bottle order costs $20,000 and sells for $24,000, so you keep $4,000. Four orders a year across the UK and Japan is $16,000. A buyer trip, tastings and promotional support can easily cost $8,000 a year, which would leave about $8,000 before tax.
That is modest, and it is honest. Export rarely pays well in the first year for a craft brand. It pays when the importer reorders every quarter without you flying over, and when a second and third product ride on the same paperwork.
Getting buyers to say yes
Importers say yes to a liquid that stands out, a story they can tell in one sentence, a price that works for their shelf, and an owner who will support the launch. Show U.S. sales and reorders, not just awards. Offer a first order small enough to be low risk, and agree on what marketing you will pay for before the first pallet ships.
Where to find them: drinks trade shows in London and Tokyo, FOODEX Japan, the U.S. Commercial Service in London and Tokyo, and introductions from other American craft brands already in the market. More in Finding foreign buyers.
Running it week to week
Answer the importer’s questions the same day, send stock reports and new material, plan the next shipment early (production, export labels and freight together take weeks), and keep records for every bottle that leaves bond. Check the importer’s sales reports each month: a brand that is not moving from the importer’s warehouse will not be reordered.
Rules to check
U.S. federal: a TTB DSP permit for whoever makes the spirit, and a TTB basic permit for a brand owner who buys and resells it. TTB’s labeling rules, and so the certificate of label approval (COLA), do not apply to spirits exported in bond, but you need a COLA for anything you sell in the U.S., and some importers ask for one. Export from bond without federal excise tax follows TTB’s export rules. File the EEI in AESDirect for shipments over $2,500 per Schedule B number. See Export controls.
U.S. state: your state alcohol agency licenses distilleries and wholesalers and may have its own rules on exports. They differ a great deal between states.
UK: the importer pays alcohol duty and VAT and must be set up with HMRC for it. Spirits must be sold in set sizes, including 70 cl and 1 litre, but not 75 cl. The label must carry the name and a UK address of the business responsible for it, usually the importer, plus strength and volume. The UK stopped using duty stamps on spirits from 1 May 2025. The retaliatory UK tariff on American whiskey was removed in 2022; check the current UK tariff for your exact product code.
Japan: the importer needs a liquor wholesale license from Japan’s National Tax Agency, files the food import notification, and puts on a Japanese label with the product name, origin, importer, ingredients, alcohol content, volume and a statement that minors may not drink. Check the Japanese tariff for your product code, and whether your product qualifies for lower duty under the U.S.-Japan Trade Agreement; Japan Customs may ask for an origin declaration.
What goes wrong
A shipment of 75 cl bottles that cannot be sold in the UK. A brand name already registered by someone in Japan. An importer that takes the first pallet and never reorders because no one supported the launch. A missing license on the U.S. side that surfaces when TTB or the state asks who sold what to whom. Tariff fights that put duties on American whiskey, as happened between 2018 and 2022. The brands that last get every license right first, launch in one market with real support, and watch the importer’s sales every month.
Questions people ask
What licenses do I need to export spirits from the U.S.?
Whoever makes the spirit needs a TTB distilled spirits plant permit and a state license. A brand owner who buys and resells bottled spirits generally needs a TTB basic permit as a wholesaler and any state license. Your importer holds the licenses in the UK or Japan.
Do I need a COLA to export spirits?
No, not for spirits exported in bond: TTB’s labeling regulations do not apply to them. You still need COLAs for anything you sell in the U.S., and some importers ask to see one.
Can I sell 750 ml bottles of spirits in the UK?
No. The UK allows spirits in set sizes such as 70 cl and 1 litre, and 75 cl is not one of them. Plan a 70 cl run for the UK; 700 ml is also an allowed U.S. size, so one bottle can serve both.
How much is UK duty on a bottle of whiskey?
From 1 February 2026, spirits over 22 percent pay £33.99 per litre of pure alcohol. A 70 cl bottle at 40 percent pays about £9.52, plus VAT at 20 percent on the selling price. The importer pays it.
How do I find an importer for my spirits brand in Japan?
Through drinks trade shows and FOODEX Japan, the U.S. Commercial Service in Tokyo, and introductions from other American craft brands. Japanese importers decide slowly and expect samples, a visit and a clear plan for support.
Free help
TTB’s international affairs pages summarize import rules for the UK, Japan and other markets, and its staff answer permit questions. The USDA Foreign Agricultural Service, which promotes U.S. food and drink abroad, and the U.S. Commercial Service in London and Tokyo can introduce importers. The American Craft Spirits Association is the trade group for small distillers. Your state’s STEP grant may pay part of a trade show, and SCORE and your Small Business Development Center help with the plan.
UK duty rates change each February, and UK and Japanese labeling rules are updated from time to time. Points here were checked in November 2026; confirm your license structure with TTB and your state, and the current duty, tariff and label rules with your importer, before each first shipment.