Global Freight is celebrating two decades of supporting clients to ship goods overseas.
The award-winning company, founded by managing director Nicole Gunter, marked the occasion with a celebration with clients and colleagues in Telford.
She said: “Global Freight is celebrating 20 years in business this year and it made sense to celebrate with our clients and business contacts we’ve made along the way!
“Two decades of supporting SMEs, particularly manufacturers, to trade overseas is a huge achievement both for me personally and for my staff, and we are now looking forward to the next two decades of growth!”
Nicole is a member of the Shropshire Chamber of Commerce Board, and has been involved in its work to support members for the last ten years. And the team raised a glass and cut a celebration cake at the Shropshire Chamber Business Expo held on June 9.
Beginning as a one-woman business, the firm has expanded to employ a team of shipping experts at its base in Halesfield and has a multi-million pound turnover.
Nicole is now regarded as one of the country’s leading international freight experts. She has previously been named as one of the top three female directors in the UK logistics industry and featured in the Who’s Who of Britain’s Business Elite.
She said: “The international export market has changed drastically over the past 20 years but our commitment to making the process as simple and straightforward for our customers has never wavered.
“I am very proud of the way Global Freight has developed and the reputation the business has gained within the industry. I am looking forward to building on that in the years to come.”
Global Freight has embraced the explosion of new technology that has happened since the firm began and uses real time software that allow customers to keep track of their deliveries.
It works with businesses of all sizes, from first-time exporters to established businesses with complex two-way trade programmes. In 2015, it added an international personal effects removal service to its operation for people moving in and out of the UK and appointed Anton Gunter as a National Sales Manager.
The firm has earned a reputation among art dealers, collectors, and luxury furniture retailers, for safely shipping oversize artwork and bronzes. Last year, it moved a two-metre high bronze sculpture weighing 750 kg from the Shropshire studio of acclaimed artist Mark Richards to Flinders University in Adelaide, Australia.
Other notable shipments include moving a life-size horse and base to Vittoria Racing Club, in Melbourne, Australia, and a sculpture from Oswestry to the door of a private collector in Texas, USA.
Nicole said: “When I first began the company, information technology was in its infancy and the majority of our work was done via telephone and fax. We have always kept abreast of the latest developments and used it to our advantage to create a streamlined approach to freight forwarding.
“Although in recent years, the UK export market has slowed, demand for our services has continued to grow and we look forward to helping many more business take those steps into foreign markets and working with our existing customers.”
As well as shipping goods across the globe, the company, a previous winner of the Shropshire Small Business of the Year award, offers extensive advice and consultancy and has been credited with assisting scores of companies to grow their operations by being a guiding hand when they launch international trade programmes.
