During 2012 Catalan exports to Latin America increased a 21% being the main recipient countries Argentina, Venezuela, Mexico, Peru and Colombia. It is also estimated that although most of the exports are from major Catalan companies, Latin America represents a great opportunity for small and medium businesses that intend to extend their export process and can take advantage of the catalan prestige that large enterprises have left in this area.

The main export sectors are chemicals and pharmaceuticals with 25.9%, automotive with 16.5%, agri-food with 11.6%, textile, metallurgical and machinery with a 6.4% each, and finally the electricity sector with 4.7% With the publication of this figures, the Catalan Government seeks to encourage other sector and entrepreneurs to increase their exports.

The past April, Tuscor Lloyds received by the hands of Mr. Ignacio Ponce, Imports Manager of Walmart Mexico, the “Best Carrier of the Year 2012″ prize. This recognition is the positive acknowledge of the quality of our services and the trust, dedication and professionalism of all the people who work with us.

Tuscor Lloyds has been an strategic partner of Walmart since 2003 and since then its global logistics supplier.

We want to extend this great news and also thank the trust and the support of our customers and colleagues.

Congratulations Tuscor Lloyds!

After last year’s success at Breakbulk Europe 2012 Tuscor Lloyds is back and this year we’re going bigger and better than ever! With our custom designed 6×3 meter exhibition stand and more of our experienced staff attending the event from our offices worldwide, we hope to build on our already strong relationships whilst meeting with new industry professionals with which we can both benefit.

Our stand number is 412H1, located in Hall 1. This year we are bringing a selection of our top staff from offices in Spain, Mexico and of course our head office in the UK. The line-up includes recognisable faces/names in the form of:

• Andrés Lozano – Director Spain Offices
• Aman Chabra – Director Mexico Offices
• Neel Ratti – General Manager UK Office (Recently returned from his role as a key speaker at Mutlimodal 2013)

Follow this link below to visit the Breakbulk Exhibition area of our website.

If you are already coming, please visit the stand where our staff would be delighted to welcome you. If not, then please let us know and we can organise discounted tickets for you.

Look forward to seeing you there!

Several reasons attract the attention of investors to Mexico:

• The increasing energy potential, more specifically in renewable energy and energy saving. Mexico occupies the 4th position worldwide in geothermal generation, is the leader supplier of photovoltaic modules in Latin America and one of the countries with the most solar radiation. It is also one of the countries with the most potential for wind power generation worldwide (the state of Oaxaca)
• The oil sector extractive industry is presenting significant business opportunities, meetings and investment and development programs for companies in the oil industry and engineering.
• Mexico is the 8th largest manufacturer of cars and the 5th largest exporter of vehicles. The automotive sector generates 3.6% of the Mexican GDP and 3M estimates production vehicles in 2015.
• The competitiveness in terms of labor costs in manufacturing makes it a very attractive option for industries.

The cargo was cased and transported from Huddersfield to the Port of Southampton using a wide load truck. Tuscor Lloyds organised the cargo to be loaded onto a maafi trailer using a heavy lift crane and shipped the cased cargo as a RORO shipment to the Port of Muscat, Oman.

The plant, estimated to produce around 42.7 mw per year, will have a modern emission control system due to Abengoa’s commitment with the environment.

This collaboration is another incursion of the freight forwarder in the infrastructure and power generation industries in Mexico. The freight forwarder was asked to move 9 pieces conforming a Recovery Boiler of 54900 kgs and 661,197 m3 from Spain to Mexico.

The cargo, picked up and transported by road from Madrid, arrived at the Port of Bilbao the 5th and 6th of February. Once in port, each one of the pieces was deliberately positioned and secured onto 6 Flatracks for the subsequent loaded to the MSC Stella vessel to Mazatlan, Mexico.

The cargo moved within the expected time and budget, and is expected to arrive at the port of Mazatlan on the 14th of April.

The high value cargo was picked up from Peschiera Borromeo in Milan, it had to be transported to the Adriatic Port of Chioggia because the cargo was too heavy to be moved by road to a Mediterranean sea-port directly. Once the cargo arrived at the Port of Chioggia it was lifted onto a specially chartered barge and transported to the Port of Naples.

The cargo was unloaded from the barge at the Port of Naples using heavy lift shore cranes with iron cables and snap-hooks duly dimensioned, placed at 4 lifting points to ensure a safe discharge. The cargo next had to be loaded onto the mother vessel for shipment to Mexico, 4 flat racks were carefully positioned inside the hold/bay to allow sufficient space to lash and secure the 2 cases. Both cases were loaded onto mother vessel, across the 4 flat racks and secured using chains and fibre bands without suffering any type of damage.

Despite severe weather conditions, Tuscor Lloyds managed to successfully deliver the cargo in time.

In this respect, the ports of Cartagena de Indias, Barranquilla and Buenaventura have the busiest record; and the largest exchanges are given around chemicals, steel products, tobacco, coffee, cocoa, paper, machinery and spare parts, coal, building materials, beverages and food products.

Once at the Port of Antwerp, Belgium the cargo was unloaded from trucks and secured to 4 x 40’ flatrack containers and 1 x 40’ highcube container. Each piece of machinery was cased and secured to the containers for safe ocean travel to Mexico.

The cargo was safely transported to the Port of Altamira in Mexico where the flatracks were unloaded from the shipping vessel and prepared for transportation to the new plant location in Altamira.

What do you see as the biggest issue in supply chain management impacting overall efficiency?

Not applicable to our business.

What is the spearhead of your future growth strategy?

Our turnover has grown by over 30% in the last 2 years and we are now exceeding pre-recession profits. The company doing better now than at any other time in its history but the margins are tighter. This means volumes are increasing faster than revenue, and the issue is amplified by the sharp decline in rates over the past 2 years.

The increase in volumes presents a problem with our operations. We have to expand the staffing arrangements to accommodate the extra work. In tandem with this in-house growth we are looking to use gains in profits to expand overseas. We have just opened an office in Hong Kong with a view to penetrating the Far East markets. There are plans to expand further over the next 3 to 5 years into other growth lanes worldwide.

In the current economic and business environment, do you still see significant opportunities for gaining market share by acquisition or merger?

Merging and swallowing each other whole seems to be the current default strategy among the larger forwarders and shipping lines. Being big means that freight companies are able to cost effectively service the high volume work and demands of the modern industry. The lions’ share of the logistics market is this kind of repetitive type of service.

Smaller companies however are filling the gaps in between – where intelligence and knowledge of the trade is required to do something out of the ordinary. Amazingly these niches are growing fast. The intensity of operations, the need to pay attention to the smallest detail, and the constant micromanagement means that it is almost impossible for the larger forwarders to grab a share of these markets.

How are the differing fortunes of the Eurozone countries impacting your business?

We don’t get too involved in the intra-European trades, so the problems in the Eurozone don’t affect us much. The Eurozone, with its tight monetary policy and overpriced currency is not achieving what every other industrialised economy has sought to do in the last 5 years – make money cheaper through reductions in interest rates and devaluation of currency.

There is a gross disparity in productivity in Europe, which has been recognised for many years. It’s a shame that the northern European economies are able to retain their competitive edge, while the south is hobbled by expensive exports and curtailed competitiveness. This divergence must be addressed if Europe is the heal itself.

Have your most favoured destinations changed because of this?

The correction in the world economy has been going on for a lot longer than the Eurozone crisis. Globalisation and recession has further picked up the pace of change. We have always tried to keep pace with trends, something that the large shipping companies often fail to do. We were the first high profile forwarder to enter the Brazilian market, for example. Nowadays it’s crowded but the bigger companies came late to the party.

What do you see as the biggest potential growth markets in 2013?

Most people talk about so-called emerging markets at the moment. These have always been important to us, but strangely mature markets are showing real growth in volumes right now. Mexico is going from strength to strength. Canada has grown hugely for us. This is not happening because of any particular development although one could argue that we are feeling some benefit from Canadian miners, who are clearly beginning develop the remote hinterland provinces. Nevertheless we seem to gaining new market shares for all cargo coming out of Northern Europe. Changes to our marketing focus and an aggressive pricing strategy are having a huge effect.

What are the greatest barriers to growth in your sector?

We operate in a few sectors with the main revenue driver being projects and out of gauge work. This market is difficult to penetrate as knowledge is required to service the accounts properly. Our methods of operation are really unique and we find even well experienced forwarders are not technically solid enough for project forwarding. So we find it difficult to recruit and therefore expand our business.

We are taking the plunge however with training and recruitment. With several highly skilled forwarders now in-house and working full time on project shipping we have a skills and knowledge base which simply cannot be matched anywhere in the industry.

What are the risks and opportunities you see in the next six months? Do you have plans to use them to your advantage?

Our marketing strategy is highly effective and we are starting to find life difficult as we put ever more pressure on our operations with new work and customers. We’re expanding, but it’s still difficult to keep up pace with the increase in volumes and enquiries. It’s unusual in the current climate to report such huge growth but we risk becoming victims of our own success.

Obviously if we can service all the new work this will present the company with some serious opportunities in the coming months and years. We’re determined to ensure the current growth spurt is sustainable and controlled so that the benefits can be spread into new markets and territory. We have already started to expand further overseas with a new office in Hong Kong and more branch offices planned in the next 3 years.

Of course there are further risks created by the recent formation of our Hong Kong office. China is experiencing a marked slowdown and confidence is low. To start a new venture at this time was definitely a risk. The size and scale of the market however is such that the rewards can be huge, and I believe we have replicated our already successful business model there as well.

Are you experiencing a skills shortage in your area of activity?

We have suffered badly over the years because of a lack of skills in our industry sector, or more accurately, a lack of the right kind of skills to service our accounts. We have a very particular way of working and even experienced industry professionals struggle to understand our business.

We have addressed this more recently by recruiting less experienced agents and training them ourselves. This policy, while taking more time at the start is proving to be highly successful. Project forwarding needs the right kind of mentality. Operatives must very attentive, diligent and tenacious. These are qualities which anyone can have, hence the opening up of our hiring policy.

What is the most important strategic decision you have taken this year?

We hope that the decisions we took turn out to be important! At the moment we are laying down the strategy for future growth of the company. Part of the process is to introduce more operational and commercial skill into the office, leaving time of the senior managers to strategize more about the future direction for the company and to look after key customers and accounts.

Another decision we made was to stick to what we’re best at, whilst only diversifying only into markets where we are already confident in our strength and skill. I know diversification is the buzzword of the moment for most companies struggling with recession, but we always felt that it was too risky to introduce completely new products into our portfolio.

What questions would you put to other CEOs/business leaders in your sector?

I’d be interested to know how people are managing at the moment because market conditions are extremely tough. We have implemented a strategy in which we concentrate on a diverse range of products but all of them strong from the outset. We managed to gain larger shares in our core market and we are forcing our competitors to look elsewhere for support.

The industry has become very aggressive in the UK and, as is the case in most recessions, only the strongest will survive. I’m happy to say we will certainly be one of them and I’m proud that we are posting consistent growth year on year even in the current climate.

Why should a young graduate join your business today?

Our business model is very unique and as a provider of freight services to other forwarders, a high standard of service must be maintained, otherwise our business will inevitably fail. For graduates this presents an opportunity to learn the best practices and techniques in the industry today.

Most of our customers are forwarding agents, who rely on our knowledge and experience to undertake difficult and complex shipments on their behalf. Our customers expect us to impress them, which is difficult for a trainee who is much less experienced in the job than the person they are serving. We push our trainees hard so that their knowledge, competence and integrity are difficult to match.

What do you see as the biggest threat to your business in the next 12 months?

We are feeling very healthy right now and we are managing to take ever increasing shares of our existing markets. I suppose our competitors coming in and fighting us for the gains we made would be the biggest threat.

Our supplier relationships are extremely important to us. Certainly anything that threatens the stability and integrity of our suppliers is a clear threat to us. Overall I can’t see us losing out on much at the moment, but we can’t take that for granted even for one second. The market is far too competitive and people will use all means necessary to improve their positions, especially when we suffer as a result. There is simply not enough business out there for the amount of providers in the industry.

In the end we can only look after our existing customers and keep growing our market share the result is hopefully a strong business which will stand the test of time.

Read Neel Ratti Q&A with Lloyds Loading List – Part 1