You see barcodes on almost every product you buy in shops. And you need these same barcodes to sell your products in the foodservice industry too - because barcodes enable you to uniquely identify your products, from manufacture to delivery and through to the final point of purchase.
Over two million companies globally use our barcodes, including all leading foodservice operators and distributors in the UK – which is why our barcodes help you trade with confidence and convenience, and save money through supply chain efficiencies.
To start assigning GS1 numbers and barcodes to your products, you’ll need a GS1 Company Prefix.
Follow the three easy steps to get started
Join now to start assigning your GS1 numbers and barcodes
Once you’ve got your GS1 Company Prefix, you’ll be able to login to our member portal, which has tools and services to help you to manage all your GS1 barcode numbers and grow your business.
Here's just some of the benefits of getting your barcode numbers from us.
| Turnover | Annual licence fee | Allocation |
| up to £0.50m | £119 | Up to 1,000 numbers |
| £0.5m to £1m | £131 | Up to 1,000 numbers |
| £1m to £10m | £203 | Up to 1,000 numbers |
| £10m to £50m | £318 | Up to 10,000 numbers |
| £50m to £100m | £1,333 | Up to 10,000 numbers |
| £100m to £250m | £1,743 | Up to 10,000 numbers |
| £250m to £500m | £2,255 | Up to 100,000 numbers |
| £500m to £1bn | £2,768 | Up to 100,000 numbers |
| Over £1bn | £3,280 | Up to 100,000 numbers |
All prices exclude VAT
A GLN, or Global Location Number, is used to identify your business as a legal entity, often via the use of EDI (Electronic Data Interchange). It can also be used to identify different offices, warehouses or even specific shelves within a warehouse. If you’re selling to major retailers they’ll often ask for your GLN. You can create your own GLNs once you’re a member of GS1 UK – from the unique company prefix we licence to you.
A Global Trade Item Number (GTIN) is a number that uniquely identifies a product. You see them beneath the barcodes on almost every product in the world. Which is why they’re often called ‘barcode numbers’. In the UK and Europe they’re usually 13 digits long, in the US 12. You might see shorter 8 digit numbers, used on smaller products. There are even 14 digit versions, to identify cases of products. The same numbers are used to identify products sold online too. The important thing to know is that they are all licensed from GS1 organisations around the world – to guarantee their uniqueness. When you join GS1 UK you can create all the GTINs you need.
If you are already a member of GS1 UK then please login to our members area where you can create GTINs and barcodes for your products
Watch how we support our members to grow their business
