NIRMS Transitional Labelling Financial Assistance Scheme
Scheme to help cover the costs to prepare for phase 1 labelling requirements under the Northern Ireland Retail Movement Scheme (NIRMS).
The NIRMS Transitional Labelling Financial Assistance Scheme has now closed. All businesses in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland can register for the Northern Ireland Retail Movement Scheme (NIRMS)”.
Defra will email applicants with the outcome by June 2024. If you are successful, you will need to accept the award within 30 days. Grant agreements should be sent out and payments made by 31 July 2024.
The government is providing up to £50 million support for businesses who had to prepare for phase 1 labelling requirements to move or receive goods under NIRMS. The scheme is providing retrospective grants based on the quantity of goods moved or received under NIRMS.
Applications closed on 15 March 2024.
Any businesses in Great Britain that are registered to the NIRMS who apply product and box labels, and businesses in Northern Ireland who have added shelf labels to prepare for phase 1 could apply.
What the funding covers
The funding covered costs taken to prepare for phase 1 of the labelling requirements that have been required from 1 October 2023.
You could claim for costs from 27 February 2023 to 28 February 2024.
What you needed to apply
To apply for the funding, your organisation had to be:
- signed up to the NIRMS
- able to provide evidence of labelling costs from 27 February 2023 that were needed under phase 1 labelling requirements of the NIRMS
Your business must have been able to prove that it has been operating for at least one year. Companies must have been registered with Companies House and have submitted at least one full annual return and annual accounts. Charities must have been registered with the Charity Commission and have been operating for at least one year.
Your business must also:
- be a limited liability company, corporation, partnership, sole proprietorship or charity
- have at least one director (or the sole trader) who resides in the UK
- have a geographical presence in the UK and a registered office in the UK, not a PO Box
How to apply
Before you applied, you needed to make sure to have your:
- Retail Movement Scheme number
- Companies House number, Charity Commission number or Unique Taxpayer Reference number
- cost totals for the funding categories you were claiming for
You needed to give the contact details of an authorised representative from your organisation who can legally accept the grant agreement.
After you submitted the application, you may be contacted and asked to submit evidence of your costs.
You will need to keep your documents for 7 years for audits. You can find more information about the type of evidence you will need to keep in the grant agreement.
Costs that are covered under the scheme
The funding covered:
- redesign costs
- printing costs
- warehouse costs
- labour costs
Redesign costs
The funding covered costs to redesign product and box-level labels and packaging for businesses in Great Britain and shelf-level labels for businesses in Northern Ireland. This included IT system updates and software packages used for the design.
The redesign funding category covered any costs that were incurred before the print stage.
Printing costs
You can claim 3 types of printing costs.
The funding covered existing product and box-level packaging that had already been printed but could no longer be used and had been thrown away at a cost to your business.
The funding covered printing ‘Not for EU’ product and box-level labels in Great Britain for goods that were already in the supply chain by 1 October 2023.
The funding also covered printing shelf-level labels for Northern Ireland businesses.
Outside of these 3 cases, printing the new and redesigned packaging is considered business as usual and was not covered by this funding.
Warehouse costs
The funding covered extra or temporary premises that may have been needed to undertake any labelling activities.
Labour costs
The funding covered the labour costs associated with the process of over-stickering products and boxes in Great Britain, and shelf-level labelling in Northern Ireland.
Costs that were not covered under the scheme
The funding did not cover business-as-usual spending.
You needed to give evidence that the costs are extra and directly caused by the phase 1 labelling requirements. For example, this could be in the form of invoices, purchase orders, resource plans with cost schedules and receipts.
The funding did not cover:
- any costs that were a part of business development, including costs to develop new stock keeping units (SKUs) or take new SKUs to market (the funding covers the costs of existing SKUs only)
- spending outside of the time from 27 February 2023 to 28 February 2024
- cost inflation at any time during the scheme, because of the short time between the start of phase 1 on 1 October 2023
Get help
Email Defra at ni.trade@defra.gov.uk for any questions about how to claim.
Last updated 4 April 2024 + show all updates
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The NIRMS Transitional Labelling Financial Assistance Scheme has now closed. Defra will email applicants with the outcome by June 2024. If you are successful, you will need to accept the award within 30 days. Grant agreements should be sent out and payments made by 31 July 2024.
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Added the website link to apply for funding through the Transitional Labelling Financial Assistance Scheme.
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First published.