Inchcape Shipping Services is a leading port agency and marine services provider with a history dating back to 1874 and a global network spanning 247 offices in 60 countries. Its mission is to allow clients to focus on the core functions of their business. Since we last profiled the company back in 2022, it has continued to focus on that core offering but has also undergone some significant changes.
“Our global network covers over 2,200 ports with our own offices and 85% of the world’s ports through our extended global network of partner agents,” says Inchcape’s global CEO, Phillippe Maezelle. “At Inchcape, we don’t just provide services, we become an integral part of our customers’ operations.”
Inchcape Shipping Services achieves this through its 3,200-strong team of experienced professionals, who ensure that vessel operations in ports are seamless, timely, and transparent.
“We actively collaborate with our customers, identifying optimisation, time and cost-saving opportunities, and mitigating risks, thereby demonstrating our commitment to their success,” explains Svend Stenberg Mølholt, COO for Inchcape Shipping Services Global.
Setting the Standard
This level of collaboration has led to Inchcape becoming the benchmark for the industry.
“We strive to set market standards where we operate,” Maezelle says. “We do this with our strong teams of passionate shipping professionals who prove themselves by servicing our customers day in and day out.”
The services that Inchcape provides today include full port agency, husbandry, canal transits, protective agency, project logistics, procurement as a service, survey and inspection, HUB services, both operational and financial, and much more. These services are delivered with the customers’ needs front and foremost in mind and with the same consistently high standards its customers have come to know them for. All of this is guided by the company’s strong leadership and ethics.
“At Inchcape, we service and operate on the back of strong corporate governance, sound compliance principles and commitment to sustainable practices, which extends to our extensive vendor network,” says Mølholt. “That is how we connect and keep our customers on an even keel.”
Inchcape Shipping Services’ ability to maintain that even keel has seen some significant challenges in recent years.
“Inchcape, like most companies in the past few years, has been affected by a series of maritime incidents, geopolitical and global challenges,” Maezelle shares.
Inchcape Shipping Services has had to navigate Covid-19 and the effect it had on global supply chains, the grounding of the Evergiven, and more recently the drought in Panama, which reduced transits. It has also seen the consequences of the conflict in the Red Sea, which has caused companies to reroute their vessels to avoid the area.
Mølholt explains, “Our approach is to adapt with our customers’ requirements, remaining nimble and supporting them during these challenging market conditions. Be it through market and port insights or through supporting their local operations in areas where they rely on our expertise, like facilitating crew changes or bunker requirements in unknown locations.”
A Network of People
Inchcape Shipping Services has remained remarkably resilient over its 177-year history, a testament to its people and its customers’ loyalty. Through close relationships with those customers and the firm’s drive to help them succeed in an ever-changing global landscape, Inchcape has set itself apart from its competitors as a truly global shipping partner.
Across that global business, Inchcape’s people have built up a reservoir of valuable, hard-won experience handling the most complex requirements in the field.
“Inchcape is a people company, meaning our key resource is our people. We strive to be a great place to work, where our people, customers, and vendors always go home safely to their families,” Maezelle says proudly. “We place great value on the development of our people, creating opportunities for them to be challenged and grow. Be it through our internal training department or on-the-job learning and development principles.”
Being a truly global company, diversity is part of Inchcape’s DNA and how it operates.
“We enjoy this diversity, which is an enabler for our business and motivates us to learn from and with each other,” Mølholt says. “We want to have the best people in the job, and we want them to be excited about the incredible trajectory we are on.”
A Port for the Future
That trajectory is set to take Inchcape Shipping Services to some very exciting places.
“We see a very exciting future here at Inchcape and for our customers,” Maezelle says. “We have worked very hard over the last few years to align ourselves with our customers’ needs. Only through intense customer engagement can you deliver on these requirements, and we are very happy to say that our transformation agenda is now really starting to show results.”
The agenda has been structured by Inchcape taking a long look at the way modern supply chains have changed, and the pivotal role Inchcape’s own operations can play within that.
“The transformation agenda that currently provides direction to Inchcape Shipping Services is really about sorting out the extra work that years of added complexities and regulations in global trade have added to the work done by shipping agents,” Maezelle says. “We sit in the middle of the supply chain and need to service while satisfying the changing demands of many stakeholders. When we transform our business to do this both better and smarter, we open up more time to service and understand our customers, which creates even better experiences.”
The results of that agenda are already clear to see. At the end of May, Inchcape launched a new standalone DA Management solution, OneCape DA. It is a complementary service element within Inchcape’s existing OneCape portfolio of HUB services.
“Our customers want a service provider that prioritises their interests when handling financial disbursement transactions and audits, regardless of the local port agent,” says Mølholt. “They value digitalisation that enables faster, simpler and more transparent operations, which frees them up to focus on their core business functions and growth. They look for efficiency and issue resolution, which requires highly knowledgeable people with a proactive mindset and timely communication.”
OneCape offers a suite of flexible solutions designed to optimise and enhance global port call management. Inchcape’s teams, armed with decades of insight and experience, are transforming operational challenges into opportunities for innovation, leveraging the latest digital technologies to deliver tangible, measurable results.
“As impartial advisors and trusted partners, we are unwavering in our commitment to minimising costs, enhancing efficiency, and enabling strategic success. Aligned with our customers’ evolving needs, we mitigate risk and ensure operational excellence at every step,” Maezelle tells us. “We have built a compelling product in OneCape DA and are excited to see how it will help grow our customers’ businesses and address the areas that are important to them.”
