Building Strength Through Relationships

Our Tilbury branch has a particular expertise in managing the freight forwarding of slate and stone products into the UK on behalf of customers.  Tilbury Branch Manager, Paul Davies – who was also recently appointed a director of the Denholm Global Logistics board – describes the dynamics he is currently seeing in the slate and stone freight forwarding market and explains the continued importance of building strong relationships.

“Freight forwarding of slate and stone products is very fluid right now, as UK demand continues to rise,” explains Paul.  “Traditional countries of origin, such as India, Pakistan and Brazil, are important to our customers importing slate and stone products into the UK.  However, due to increasing container freight rates and the restrictive bottlenecks we’re all experiencing worldwide, many of our UK customers are exploring additional options for importing from countries closer to home, such as Turkey, Italy and Spain.  The cost of slate and stone products from these countries may be higher but, in the current climate, the lower freight prices due to shorter container journeys help to balance the decision, often making the ‘door delivered price’ more appealing.”

Paul continues, “Like all our branches at Denholm Global Logistics, we like to be flexible and responsive, as well as providing certainty on individual shipments.  One of the reasons we are able to work with our customers in this way is thanks to the strong relationships with our agents.  In traditional countries of origin, some of our relationships have been developed over two decades, and we are also cultivating new relationships in Europe and the Near East.”

As Paul explains, it essentially comes down to trust.  “Because we invest in our relationships with both carriers and agents, there are strong levels of mutual respect and trust.  In turn, our customers trust us because we do what we say we’ll do.  In today’s volatile freight forwarding market, our customers place a lot of value this.”