Company Profile: Import Services

Services with a smile

Import Services is opening its new £24m distribution hub, which promises to tune-up domestic and international supply chains. Toy World spoke to Mike Thomas, client services director, about the new Southampton hub, what it offers Import Services’ clients, and how it will help mitigate current pressures on shipping.

A lot has happened since we last spoke, Mike, not least Covid-19 and Brexit. How has Import Services been faring?

Our teams were amazing during the pandemic. Those of us who could were able to work from home and our operational teams didn’t miss a single day’s activity. It has been a truly uplifting experience to be part of such an incredible group of people. As the markets reopened with a surge in Q4 last year, we processed the highest volume throughput in Import Services’ history despite CV-19 restrictions to our normal working practices. Our proven ability to feed Amazon successfully was also key to this transformational year.

While the pandemic was challenging enough, then came Brexit. Many of our clients serve customers in Continental Europe and the ROI, as well as the UK, so this was another adventure.

Three years ago, we asked ourselves how Import Services could keep supply chains open to Europe after Brexit. To answer that question, we forged a relationship with EDCR (European Distribution Centre Roosendaal) which allows us to operate shuttles carrying picked orders from Import Services’ bonded sites in Southampton, through to our partner’s bonded transit hub in Roosendaal, Holland, without stopping at ports for Customs formalities. In the first three months of 2021, we moved in excess of 4,000 pallets on 150 shuttles. As you might expect, our clients are delighted. Most other logistics companies have not been able to cope with the customs complications that have arisen since leaving the EU, which places us in a real position of strength. Looking further ahead, in 2022 our plan is to also offer Import Services 3PL services in Holland, should clients eventually seek a twin stock solution to serve both UK and Continental European markets from us as one service provider, further enhancing our business proposition.

What can you tell us about your new distribution hub?

Import Services’ operation at Southampton container port is a real success story; there’s no other distribution centre located just 200 metres from where the largest container ships dock from the Far East, the origin of most of our clients’ products. Our unique port-centric model allows us to move containers swiftly from the arriving vessels into our distribution centres, where we process orders to market at an unrivalled speed.

Clients benefit from speed to market and our retail logistics knowledge, spanning the UK, ROI and Continental European markets. However, to continue growing with our clients we must innovate and expand our capacity.

The existing Southampton quayside facilities are inherited buildings, which we developed from 20,000 to 30,000 pallet capacity. The new co-joined distribution hub is designed from scratch by us with growth in mind, as well as an additional 30,000 pallets. 24 doors allow huge scope for efficient stand-trailer operations, while the sevenhigh Very Narrow Aisle [VNA] racking is serviced by wire-guided trucks, which will be automated in due course. The trucks will also double-cycle in terms of putting away pallets, as well as picking.

Your readers can find out more about the new hub in the July issue of Toy World, when we’ll be providing an in-depth look inside the new facility.

Big challenges lie ahead in shipping, namely container pricing and availability. How will this situation develop in the coming months, and how might your new distribution centre help mitigate this issue?

Global demand for PPE led to an offset in balance of containers, which distorted the market and resulted in price increases. Current freight rates were unsustainable and are now only slowly being rebalanced. We expect rates will return to something resembling normality by mid-year.

Container ships themselves are also becoming much larger. Increased volumes of container movements are taking place at ports when ships dock as a result, hence our desire to safeguard with further efficiency measures via the new purposebuilt facility. It enables us to discharge multiple containers every hour, around the clock, to meet seasonal demand from the world’s largest ships, which are discharging our clients’ products during peak periods.

Why is the environmental impact of the hub important to Import Services?

We have always championed environmental sustainability. It’s in our DNA. Import Services’ existing buildings were upgraded with this in mind - our Southampton port site provides one of the largest solar arrays in southern England – and the BREEAM rating for our new hub was a major focus from the beginning. In addition to the building design, our port-centric model means empty containers are not moved to inland container depots via road. Instead, containers are simply shunted just 200 metres from the side of the inbound vessel straight into our distribution centres for order-processing. From quayside DCs, our clients’ products are then sent directly to their customers with the empty container then moved 200 metres back onto the ship. This removes carbon from the supply chain.

Cutting ‘Time, Cost and Carbon’ are the three factors which help make Import Services’ portcentric business model so compelling.

Why should companies be looking to work with Import Services at this current time?

We are AEO (Authorised Economic Operator) accredited, which is recognised by our European trading partners as the highest level of Customs accreditation. All our warehouse facilities are also bonded, which means product arriving from overseas, and destined for customers within the UK, ROI or in Continental Europe, can be stored at our quayside DCs without incurring VAT or Duty until product is sold to market. We can then move picked orders under bond across Customs jurisdictions, with our clients only paying VAT and duty once on the products sold within their respective markets, due at the end of the transaction month. The cashflow advantage and import/export flexibility this brings is particularly beneficial for our clients.

We understand Import Services may be changing its name – can you tell us more?

Import Services was acquired by Xpediator Group in 2018 and now forms the principal part of the group’s successful Logistics division. To further enhance our service offering, we are consolidating the other UK group logistics companies into the Import Services’ company entity, and rebranding under one banner.

From May this year we will be known as Delamode International Logistics, trading as Import Services. This transition is adding team strength, extending our reach, and supplementing great facilities in an exciting new phase of development for our existing and prospective clients.