SOUTHAMPTON FREIGHT SERVICES LTD

SFS Family Announcements

2019 has been a busy year for the family !

In our 21st year of trading, we have seen quite a few changes to the SFS Family. With Sue Savage retiring in June, after 11 years with the company, and Chloe Posthlewaite deciding not to return from maternity after her second child was born, just missing out on her 10 year anniversary, and now Pete Harvey becoming a father for the first time, its certainly been a time of change for some of our team. Tasha Birch left on maternity and gave birth to her second child, and is due to return in January 2020 to our cruise and marine division, and Sammy returned from maternity in April. Huge thanks to Sue and Chloe for everything you have done for the company over the last decade, and congratulations to Tash, Sammy and Pete.

But it’s also been a year of change for the entire company, with lots of new faces;

On our accounts department, we have employed a young apprentice, Abby Tearse, just 17 years old, gaining vital on the job experience in addition to completing a business administration apprenticeship through Totton College and hopefully leading on to AAT training afterwards.

Bringing young people into the business is always a challenge; Freight Forwarding & Logistics isn’t a well-known industry, and perhaps it’s not ‘sexy’ enough to attract young talent. However, with the new BIFA (British International Freight Association) Apprenticeship scheme , we have been working hard to bring in some new blood.

In September and October we welcomed, as part of the BIFA Apprenticeship;

Alice Wappet-Madden, 16 years old – Joined our Import Team

Max Williamson, 16 – Joined our Air Export team

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In our warehouse, this February saw the appointment of Joe Elsey, bringing a wealth of warehousing experience to our extremely busy operation (if you remember our “3 Months in the Life of SFS” Time Lapse movie, you can appreciate how busy we are at times with our consolidation for marine vessels, particulate body during the summer Mediterranean season. He has a fantastic ‘can do’ attitude and leads by example – bringing great knowledge with him of pick/pack operations and counterbalance, reach and flexi fork truck experience. We also must note he’s a Liverpool fan, which pleased the directors greatly!

Our Cruise & Marine Logistics Division see’s Zoe Hodge temporarily depart. Joining us for a 3 month internship in May 2018, whilst studying a degree in Maritime Business at the Southampton Solent University, Zoe enjoyed it so much (and equally was extremely good at the job!) that she stayed for 18 months to help out the growing department. On the 4th September she departed, temporarily, to finish her degree, and returns in August 2020 to continue as a full-time employee. We now welcome Annette Jinelle Noronha, who is also studying Maritime Law and Business at the same university, who joined the team in September, under a part time internship. An extremely talented and energetic young lady with a wealth of maritime experience already, having sailed on 22 container vessels in her 22 years of her life thus far (her father is a Master Mariner of 35 years).

Our new family members have settled in well, although some of the senior members of the team were left feeling decidedly ‘old’, after discovering the birth year of the youngest members! Young Alice and Max were both born in 2003…and Del was born in 1946! That’s some age gap! But with the company forming in 1998, the directors are also feeling a little old.

Also, in this year we saw Stuart Green and Belinda Leadley reach the 21 year milestone with SFS, and Adam Pearce reach 20 years. For the directors it’s a humbling experience. MD Ross Negus explains; “We had no idea in 1998, when we started the business, that we’d be sitting here 21 years later, acknowledging such wonderful commitment to the company over two decades and beyond – it is simply incredible. Belinda, Stuart and Adam have seen the company grow from a start-up, in a small office and all the struggles we went through, to where we are now, with three warehouses and a team of 40 plus. And the funny thing is they remind me of shipments we handled in 2003, or clients we worked with in the year 2000, or problems we encountered in 2006. Some of these I can’t even remember! My brother and I are eternally grateful of their support, and for each and every member of our team. We’re one big family here”.

Adam is now moving slightly away from day to day air import operations and will now oversee our joint air/ocean ETSF warehouse operation, whilst assisting the warehouse in other areas. A marked change from his previous 20 years, but he’ll provide good knowledge and experience to the warehousing team, whilst learning the new elements that role encompasses.

At the tail end of this eventful year, we also welcome two new team members. Niamh Irwin joins our international and UK courier department – after gaining a few years’ experience locally handling administration for bonded warehousing and dispatches, including warehouse picks and awareness of dangerous goods. This knowledge will help her quickly understand the extremely busy and varied courier department.

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We also have employed a new driver, James Black, who has been working as holiday/sickness cover for the past 2 years, and is widely considered a lovely chap, always smiling and very friendly. He writes and produces music in his spare time and uses time on the road to get inspiration – so it’s possible you may feature in the next no.1 single!

Its certainly been one of the biggest years of change in our twenty one years of trading, but as the company continues to grow we feel extremely proud of our diversity, and the commitment of our long serving team members, together with our new recruits whom we hope will have an equally long future with SFS, and the youngsters in particular becoming the future of the business. The family is growing.