The document discusses the opportunities that Brexit presents for CCL, a customs brokerage and logistics company. It emphasizes that change is constant in business and the need to adapt. In response to Brexit, CCL opened a new hub in Amsterdam to serve the EU and maintains UK and EU bases to take advantage of both markets. Brexit did not deter their thinking and they saw it as a chance to leverage their expertise in customs brokerage on both sides of the new border. The document promotes their leadership in ecommerce logistics and handling of over 31 million parcels year-over-year.
4. WWW.WCAECOMMERCE.COM #WCAECOMMERCE
CCL โThe Customs Brokerโ
What do we KNOW that others donโt?
Where is CHANGE coming from?
Whatโs the OPPORTUNITY?
How can we MAKE A DIFFERENCE?
โฆ.. eCommerce
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Successful Industrial โAdaptersโ
Transport
Horse and cart, railway, motor car, flight, canoe,
sailboat, steamship, container ship
Technology & Communication
Pen and paper, typewriter, mainframe, PC, laptop,
tablet, telex, landline, fax, email, smartphone, SMS
Data Storage
Punch-card, mag-tape, micro-fiche, hard drive, floppy
disc, USB, in-the-cloud
Freight Forwarding & Logistics (yes, we can do it!)
Road transport, sea freight, container standards, air
cargo, next-day, same-day, drop-offs, driverless
deliveries andโฆ drones
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Back to those Questionsโฆ
What do we KNOW that others donโt?
Where is CHANGE coming from?
Whatโs the OPPORTUNITY?
How can we MAKE A DIFFERENCE?
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What did this mean for CCL?
โช Change is the only constant in business
โช We donโt let BREXIT cloud our thinking
โช Back to our basics
โช Customs brokerage on both sides of the new
border
โช A new hub in Amsterdam serving the EU
โช UK and EU bases โ the best of both worlds
โช 31 million parcels, year-on-year
โช Always be prepared to adapt
15. Thank you
WWW.WCAECOMMERCE.COM #WCAECOMMERCE
โช Rudee Bertie, MD, CCL
โช Address:
Unit 4, Radius Park, Hatton Cross
Middlesex, TW14 0NG, UK
โข Tel: +44(0)20 8231 0900
CCL: Market Leaders in eCommerce Gateway
Logistics
Editor's Notes
I believe customs brokers and forwarders have a greater role to play post-Brexit.
Introduce Rudee, Founder and Managing Director of CCL
What do you think of Brexit? Is it a Brave New World or the Biggest Mistake Ever?
Donโt answer that! Iโll tell you why โ because whatever your view of Brexit, thereโs one thing that we, as business owners and managers in freight and logistics, should all agree on. Itโs an OPPORTUNITY.
Everyone in business needs to have a mindset which welcomes change, because in business, change is inevitable.
The issue is not that change happens โ the issue is how you capitalise on it.
This is my take on how CCL has tackled the undoubted challenge of Brexit. This is my take on the questions I believe you should be asking yourselves in your businesses, to ensure you stay โin the gameโ with Brexit too.
Thereโs a quote, attributed to Mahatma Gandhi. Itโs this: 'Be the changeย thatย you wish to seeย in the world.โ
Let me give you a scenario; actually Iโm gonna give you a few scenarios.
When I started my career I worked for a large organisation at the time in the imports department. For whatever reason, I fancied myself as a supervisor or manager. Iโd only been in the job for a few months. Anyway, I said to my team leader at the time, โone day Iโm going to be a supervisor and get a company carโ. She turned and said, โwell you wonโt get a company car here, nobody is going to give up their job for you..โ . So I left that company, and I moved to a smaller company, where I became a supervisorโฆ and I got my company car..
I worked for a business and started to develop sales techniques where I would go on and bring in lots of business for the company; I said to my boss, โBoss, you need to give me a pay riseโ. He looked at me for a while and said, โRudee - why do you think I need to give you a pay rise?โ I said, โBoss, if you need to think about giving me a pay rise, I need to think about leaving the businessโ. I left the company the very same day.
My thinking was thisโฆ. I wonโt ever let anybody tell me โyou canโtโ.
CCL started in 1999 and although we developed and established business and made a living from it, we were never going to be millionaires. To be honest, we always felt a little cheated and even disrespected. As a customs broker, we had all the intellect and specialist knowledge, yet we were only able to charge peanuts for the work we were doing. Over the years, many forwarders and especially courier companies would get very rich on the back of our knowledge and expertise, and we wanted a piece of the action without stepping on our own customersโ toes.
We knew we needed to change โ to develop from basic brokerage and implement some added value. We knew we had something, but we had to work out what, and how to make the most of our expertise, our position and our insight. And we had to figure out where the opportunities would appear. We had to work out how we could make a difference.
So these were the questions we asked ourselves. [slide text]
And thereโs no spoiler here. As you all know, for us, the answer was eCommerce. But donโt go thinking it came easilyโฆ
At that time, eCommerce was being developed and the post office picked up most of that business, purely by default.
We could see certain goods were not being presented/declared to Customs. We decided this would be where weโd strike, because it was a chance to make a difference in the industry, in an area where we could see things werenโt working the way they should.
But in order to do that, we had to โ in the nicest possible way โ disrupt.
We turned up at corporate meetings; we sat in hotel lobbies; we gate-crashed dinners and after-work events to get in front of the right peopleโฆ only to be told, โwe donโt need your services, we are the Post Office. Why do we need a customs broker? We do it all in-house ourselves. We donโt need you!โ
Butโฆ.
We didnโt take NO for an answerโฆ
Eventually there was a breakthrough and the rest is over 150 million parcels history.
To bring this into perspective, last year alone we processed over 31 million parcels through our facilities. And despite the hiccup of Brexit, weโre targeting to do much the same this year too.
So you could say eCommerce is very important to me. Itโs our past, our present and our future...
So letโs cut to Brexit. On that referendum voting evening/night, I donโt know about you guys, but I went to bed not even thinking about the result. In the early hours of the morning I could hear my phone buzzing repeatedly on the dresser and I just knew weโd be waking up into a new world...
Great, I thought, as I lay there in the dark; another set of problems to deal with.
But you know what, without problems to overcome, we wouldnโt have our businesses. If it was easy, everyone would be doing it, and weโd be nowhere. But itโs tough, and itโs challenging.
It was of prime importance to CCL that we addressed the situation immediately with our customers and global associates. When few people outside the Government had any idea what should happen next, we made sure we understood how the exit process was supposed to play out. Our aim, right from those first few days was to reassure our clients and associates that we were on top of things, and were doing everything we could in order to offer reassurance and a measured response, when all around us was, wellโฆ just a little chaotic.
A few days later, the Prime Ministerโs statement followed. In synch with our own reflection of events, it offered as much reassurance as was possible at that time. It spelled out what we already understood and had communicated to our own network.
Right from the start, we have ensured we keep abreast of the way Brexit is developing. Weโve made it our business to understand the likely impact of the various negotiations, and weโve kept ourselves informed, to ahead-of-the-game; planning for an uncertain future, working different scenarios and ensuring we kept all the important options open.
What that has meant as the weeks and months went on, the the uncertainties continues, is that weโve had to review, retrench and regroup. Weโve had to go back to our basics and look afresh at our world.
Because, according to Darwin, who knew a bit about โSurvival of the Fittestโโฆ. [slide text]
And weโre making it our business to be responsive to change.
Letโs just stop a minute and quickly review some of the changes we โ all of us โ have learned to adapt to, and embrace, and โ letโs be honest โ build our profits uponโฆ. [slide points]
Thereโs nothing ground-breaking here. Itโs those questions Iโve been asking myself throughout my career. Itโs these questions which have underpinned the success of CCL, the progress weโve made, and the position we hold in the industry today.
These open questions make us think boldly and challenge the status-quo. [slide questions]
Like I said, for CCL, this has meant going back to our basics, but still within the context of the massive opportunity and continued rapid expansion of eCommerce.
Where clients need a hub in the EU, and London wonโt be in the EU, weโve set up the hub they needโฆ in Amsterdam.
With two hubs now, not just one, we have ultimate flexibility, ultimate convenience for goods moving into the EU and the UK โ the best of both worlds.
Brexit has been the driver for building new liaisons with partners in Amsterdam, and looking for new and creative solutions for our present and future clients.
I mentioned earlier, our business today is around 90% eCommerce, and 30% of that is bound for the EU โ we have a big role to play in the new Brexit future.
Whatever our private views, we canโt afford to be negative about Brexit โ itโs coming, and thatโs that. Our job in commerce is to seek out the opportunities, and ready ourselves for the changes โ to stay โahead of the gameโ and provide our clients with the assurances they need that itโs โbusiness as usualโ, whatever Brexit delivers over the coming months. Thatโs your job, and your challenge, too.
