A combination of Brexit and the Covid-19 pandemic has hit the freight industry hard. At Supreme Freight, we've been fortunate enough to experience a period of growth and expand our operations. There has been a huge boom in demand for goods, such as food, games, toys and other items that people so desperately want and need during this pandemic, at Supreme we've risen to the challenge of meeting this demand by opening a new office and growing our team.
How did the lockdown help?
During last year’s scorching summer, Supreme Freight saw a rapid rise in the sales of garden furniture, which produced a lot more business as the volume of imports handled by Supreme Freight rose.
Managing Director of Supreme Freight, Chris Green, said “A lot of our clients went online to sell and many had their best year ever. We also handle a lot of PPE equipment. In 2020, for the first time we exclusively chartered two aircraft to fly urgent products to the UK from China,”
Many services were in dire need of personal protective equipment (PPE), especially hospitals, and many other industries that were required to remain open during the pandemic. This provided people with an urgent need to have goods delivered, and this is where business began booming for Supreme Freight.
Brexit
In order to cope with the high demands that are being required of the freight industry, Supreme Freight has added around a dozen members of staff to its team of now over 50. Supreme Freight has also recently opened up a second office in Southampton to cope with the high demand.
No-one in the company expected business to boom quite so much, as “We had the first lockdown, and it was Chinese New Year, so things were quiet for us. We also had the prospect of congestion at UK ports if there were delays obtaining customs clearances,” said Chris.
While many expected Supreme to struggle with the aftermath of Brexit, it actually gave Supreme Freight an opportunity to thrive and showcase exactly what the company is made of.
Asia client base
Managing Director, Chris Green, has been keeping his eye on the clients based in Asia, as well as expanding operations in the US and EU. “Many of our Asian clients who export to the UK have contacted us for support dealing with the EU and the US,” he said. “As well as China, we are looking at Vietnam, which is a major trading partner with the US.”
Despite the challenge of not being able to meet clients face-to-face due to coronavirus, Chris Green cannot wait to get back to Asia and start handling business as usual.
A new American office
Supreme Freight will also be opening a new office based in Los Angeles, America. Chris Green has said that the location is ideal for two reasons.
“First, it’s ideal for handling shipments from China and Asia to the US. Second, an office in Los Angeles with the time difference enables us to offer 24/7 customs clearance support for clients moving goods to and from the EU to the UK” said Chris.
We look forward to continued growth in 2022, allowing us the opportunity to better serve the needs of our amazing clients and their customers.
