14/04/2012
CARIBBEAN BUSINESS
From Aguadilla to the world
By : JAIME SANTIAGO
Volume: 40 | No: 13
Page : 36
Issued : 04/05/2012
Exceptional service and customer focus key to logistics provider CaribEx’s expansion in U.S., Caribbean and Central America
With 10 warehouses throughout Puerto Rico, the U.S., the Dominican Republic and Central America, more than 2,000 counterpart logistics companies around the world and a notably diverse service offering, CaribEx Worldwide must be doing something right.
A local provider of complete transportation and logistics services, CaribEx is a member of the World Cargo Alliance, and as such is able to offer worldwide transportation services through the alliance’s 541 offices in 287 markets in 113 countries.
The company’s broad range of services includes air and ocean consolidation and distribution programs, vendor-managed inventory (VMI), electronic data interchange (EDI), inventory & management reporting capabilities, security and fire protection, pick and ship / purchasing programs, certified personnel in hazardous material handling, as well as ground, air and ocean transportation services to most multinational retailers and manufacturing companies operating in Puerto Rico.
“Since day one, serving our customers’ needs with dedicated, efficient and personalized service has been our company’s goal, and today this continues driving all our efforts,” Joseph Chatt Jr., CaribEx’s Caribbean region president, told CARIBBEAN BUSINESS in an exclusive interview. “Every customer’s needs are different; we make sure we understand them and tailor services to meet their requirements. We practically become our customer’s logistics department.”
Offering customized services might be an understatement in CaribEx’s case. The company has flown employees on overnight international flights to personally deliver urgently needed packages to overseas manufacturing plants that would have had to temporarily halt operations if the merchandise wasn’t received on time.
“We aren’t just a transportation and logistics provider,” said Joselin Ramos, senior vice president at CaribEx. “We become partners with our clients; in some cases we might be considered their logistics department. Some clients don’t have administrative offices in Puerto Rico, so we provide them office space and administrative personnel if it will make their operations viable locally.
“We will do whatever it takes to offer solutions to our customers, and if we can help a foreign company establish operations here, we will do it; it will not only benefit us, but will also be good for Puerto Rico.”
CaribEx’s customer roster includes major pharmaceutical companies, as well as medical device and electronics manufacturers, and many of the island’s big retailers.
“We will store our customers’ inventories and deliver the goods to their clients’ facilities on an as-needed basis,” said Juan “Hery” Roldán, chief financial officer at CaribEx. “We become our customer’s warehouse in Puerto Rico. We make deliveries to all the island’s shopping centers on a daily basis because of the many retail accounts we have.”
A well-grounded reputation
CaribEx was founded in 1980 as Caribe Express, an airfreight and trucking company operating out of Aguadilla. Caribe Express quickly established a reputation for providing fast, secure, reliable transportation. It ventured into airfreight with scheduled flights between Aguadilla and the Dominican Republic.
When the trucking business began to grow, the company was able to expand to the U.S. mainland, Central America and the Caribbean. CaribEx Worldwide started operations in 1997 through the merger of seven transportation companies created over the years by the late Joe Chatt Sr. and John Ford, the company chairman and president, respectively.
When Caribe Express began operations, it had just six employees and gross annual sales of $218,000 the first year. Now the transportation provider has 300 direct employees and gross annual sales of more than $50 million. The company has offices in Aguadilla and Carolina; Greensboro, N.C.; Chicago; Atlanta; Miami; Charleston, S.C.; El Salvador; Guatemala; Honduras; Nicaragua; Belize; and Mexico; as well as three offices in the Dominican Republic.
WWW.CARIBEX.COM
