Move it Like... Ian McCarthy

MOVE IT LIKE...

I grew up around the industry as my father used to run his own freight forwarding firm. I would go down on a weekend and do office admin and then later unpack and load containers.

Following on from that I finished college and went to work for ECU-Line; at the time it was basically a stop gap while I decided what I was going to study at university.

IAN McCARTHY

UK DIRECTOR OF ECU WORLDWIDE

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YEAR FOUNDED

1995

EMPLOYEES

61

SPECIALISMS

LCL FCL

MAIN TRADE ROUTES

Global

TURNOVER

£24 million

SALES INCREASE

+10% in 2016 SITES

2 in the UK: Southampton & London AWARDS

Consolidator of the year, Global Freight Awards MILESTONES

1995 UK office Established 2006 ECU Group acquired

by Allcargo Global Logistics 2008 Growth of LCL export product 2012 Development of LCL import product 2014 UK acquisition of SHE Maritime

IAN McCARTHY, 2015 Development of FCL product 2016 Consolidator of the year and the Global Freight Awards

ECU WORLDWIDE

IAN SAYS...

I would go down on a weekend and do office admin and then later unpack and load containers.

How did you get into the freight industry?

I

grew up around the industry as my father used to run his own freight forwarding firm. I would go down on a weekend and do office admin and then later unpack and load containers. Following on from that I finished college and went to work for ECU-Line; at the time it was basically a stop gap while I decided what I was going to study at university.

I went on to study for a psychology degree but stayed at ECU to fund my way through. Once I’d finished, I realised I was probably more suited to business!

MOVE IT LIKE...

Q A A

have control over the whole journey.

opportunity to start something almost from scratch but also daunting! Three years ago I was promoted to director as part of a newly formed board after the acquisition of another

people that started the franchise agreement in the UK. He

company, where today I am primarily responsible for all sales

left the industry fairly soon after to start a battlefield tour

and commercial functions across the business.

He loves it!

How long has ECU Worldwide been operational?

Q A

How did you build the commercial activity?

The first thing we did was to speak to customers and find out what they knew about us and what we quickly found out was that despite being a global company, we weren’t

ECU Line was set up in 1987 on the premise of being

all that well-known in the UK. We invested in marketing

a neutral wholesale company offering LCL services to

initiatives and advertising, alongside building a sales force,

multinational forwarders (at first) who didn’t have enough

with the purpose of getting a message to market about

cargo to run regular boxes. The original concept which

who we are and our capabilities. Initially, we picked a few

still remains today was an outsource partner for freight

trade lanes that we wanted to develop and then invested in

forwarders and logistics companies for their LCL business.

them and persevered. After some time they paid dividends

Within a number of years we had 100 offices globally and

and we used the successes and failures of each one to learn

we were sending people all over the world to set up new

and adapt when launching further services. At one point

operations. It grew phenomenally over this period and

we were launching a new service each month which was an

quickly established itself as one of the largest NVOCC’s in

extremely busy time!

group and have since taken the brand truly global with over 300 offices in 160 countries across the globe. Last year the

A

we have is that we

I got into ECU Line because my father was one of the

the world. In 2006 Allcargo Global Logistics acquired the

Q

One of the advantages

Why did you choose ECU?

company where he takes tourists on foreign battlefields.

Q

IAN SAYS...

group rebranded as ECU Worldwide.

How have you progressed through ECU Worldwide?

Q A

What are your key markets?

We are pretty strong everywhere, which seems a sales cliché, but we cover all the major markets and operate a lot of niche services into many developing markets. Wherever business and volume permits we run direct services and in total now run over 100 direct point to point export and

Initially, I started off doing clerk work, primarily in imports, and then throughout the years, I’ve pretty much done everything. My first managerial role was running the export operations at our last premises and then around eight years ago the company asked me to develop a sales structure to grow the business. I was happy to oblige, it was a great

import LCL trade lanes. Via our strong network and hubs, we can service a further 1000 ports and CFS.

Q A

What separates you from your competitors?

One thing we do have is a real dedication to customer

It also has contingent benefits for productivity as it

service and we’re always looking at how we can improve small

enables our staff to focus on more front end tasks

processes across the business so the customer experience is

adding more value to the customers.

activity of the company works in unison with the operations as part of the product we offer our clients. Of course, the price is important in what is often a rate-obsessed market but we also sell on the service and the value we can add for clients. We take real pride in our level of customer retention and I think

A

automate many processes which facilitate quicker communication between offices, clients and suppliers.

consistent and of a high standard. All the sales and commercial

Q

have our own in-house software so we are able to

it’s a huge part of why we’ve grown year on year.

Q A

What’s been your biggest challenge in the role?

I think the level of responsibility you take on when stepping into a senior role is always a challenge – you realise you are accountable for other people and that the decisions you make affect them. When you’ve

How do you benefit from having a global network?

got 60 other people who depend on you, it’s vital to have a good team around you because you can’t do everything – I’m lucky to have that. The biggest

One of the advantages we have is that we have control

challenge was taking on the sales role with relatively

over the whole journey, the customer deals with an ECU

little experience, I had to learn pretty quick as the

office here in the UK but we’re also sending the container

group was heading in a certain direction regardless,

to an ECU office, sometimes even an ECU warehouse, at

so it really was a case of sink or swim. I knew the

destination. Without our network, we’d have to rely on

business and product so I focused on my strengths

agents, which isn’t always consistent. The big gain of an

whilst acquiring knowledge and skills in weaker areas.

integrated network is with real-time information flow, we

Luckily for me, the risk paid off.

MOVE IT LIKE...

Q A

company can freely advocate their thoughts and feelings.

and pickup rates in any quotes we generate. We’re currently operating in around 160 countries worldwide with the aim of

I am a firm believer in hard work. In business as in life, you

having a global end-to-end LCL calculator – something that

generally get out what you put in. Seeing the company where

isn’t in the marketplace at present which I believe will be a

it is now and having been a part of it since the beginning is a

great innovation.

and a few lowlights along the way but the journey has been extremely rewarding and enabled me to continuously advance my career and as a person.

What’s your company culture like?

Q A

How is the shipping landscape impacting consolidators?

There’s always going to be a need for what we do because people are always going to want to save cost and that’s effectively our role. Currently, the market trends are moving

I think we have a culture of inclusivity where everybody

toward higher rates which will benefit groupage operators

in the company can freely advocate their thoughts and

as LCL becomes a more viable option. Our’s and all supply

feelings. I think that transparency is important so that the

chains lead back to the liner market and more stability and

management and wider team are aware of the objectives

consistency will benefi t margins and services across the

and goals of the business. It means they understand why key

market.

decisions are being made and can play a part in the decisionmaking processes. We don’t always agree of course but it provides a great forum for ideas and discussion. There are a number of people who have been here 10+ years so we

Q A

...everybody in the

Your biggest achievement?

huge achievement for me. There have been many highlights

Q A

IAN SAYS...

must be doing something right!

What’s your growth strategy?

Q A

How do you see the console market changing in the short to medium term?

The barriers to entry are much greater than they used to be because a lot of what we do now is automated – it’s dependent on networks and systems, so to set something up now would be very diffi cult. I think now our market

With our LCL set up being as strong as it is, it made

will probably go the same as the shipping lines, there

sense for us to expand into offering FCL too. We can use

will be more mergers, more acquisitions, and there will

the network we have in place and our relationships with

be a lot of consolidation of those types of companies.

the shipping lines to make sure our customers are getting

Technology is also now advancing rapidly and the demand

the best price and the best service possible. As a product

and demographic profile of our customers are changing,

it’s growing quite rapidly, we’ve got dedicated FCL teams in

more now value IT and E-Tool innovations so it’s vital the

both London and Southampton serving clients. We’re also

market keeps pace with this.

re-developing our online portal with a new product called E2C360 which is coming online this year. The new element is the ‘door to door’ functionality which will include delivery

Q A

How do you maintain margins in a tight industry?

Sometimes with great difficulty, to an extent ours is a volume game where we need to generate volume in order to create economies of scale and keep our costs down. However more and more now we strive to increase productivity and efficiencies in all aspects throughout the business. One example of this would be in our IT and online services and building EDI connections with clients. Whilst controlling cost is vital we also take the view that we need to safeguard the mechanisms that maintain the service, so we need to work with suppliers where we can guarantee this.

It’s always our primary focus as price is always negotiable but the standard of service is not. Generally, it’s a case of

Q A

balancing everything well.

What are your thoughts on Brexit?

There will be changes no doubt about it, but as a business, it’s the same for everyone. We can’t do anything about what the underlying economy does, that’s the job of the politicians.

All we can do is deal with what the market is doing and make

Q A

sure that we adapt and anticipate in the best way we can.

What about the US President?

Where to begin! I think it’s really too soon to tell but it may be a positive if we agree on a beneficial trade deal which will facilitate more business. Other than that my thoughts are that we live in a crazy world sometimes where it’s impossible to know what’s coming round the corner.

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