Comprehensive logistics services within reach of the exporter

Pérez y Cía. has been in the Spanish maritime transport scene for more than a century, what trajectory has the company followed since its constitution?

Pérez y Cía. is a company founded in 1853, with its own operations in Spain and several other countries. We have offices in 18 Spanish ports, in addition to the Group's headquarters in Madrid (which also has a sales office for central Spain), as well as a significant presence in the Caribbean, with subsidiaries in Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Cuba, Panama, and Jamaica.

Our main activity since our inception has been that of Ship Agents, representing regular shipping lines with container ships, conventional cargo vessels, and vessels equipped for transporting special parts. Currently, we also offer a wide range of services and infrastructure related to maritime transport, such as container terminals, stevedores, container depots, freight forwarding services, groupage, full loads, air, sea, and land transport, industrial projects, insurance, customs brokerage, and chartering, among others. All of this is aimed at providing a comprehensive logistics service. I would also like to highlight our insurance agency, GESAMAR, which offers technical advice and facilitates the contracting of all types of insurance, including marine, property, personal, cargo, shipbuilding, auto, civil liability, and machinery breakdown insurance.

Manuel de Mazarredo, Director of Industrial Projects at Pérez y Cía.

For you, the development of comprehensive logistics services, as well as intermodal service and total quality in global customer service, has been a constant. You speak of a challenge; what strategy do you follow to achieve these objectives?

The strategy followed by Pérez y Cía., in order to guarantee a comprehensive service offering and cover all the needs that our clients have been demanding, is to offer a global door-to-door service, expanding the traditional frameworks and opening our organization to the most current marketing resources and techniques.

Currently, we provide a range of related services that define a comprehensive and high-quality customer service, as you mentioned in your question. These include, as I said, door-to-door service, conducting studies on appropriate routes and means of transport and handling, selecting services and lines with preferential rates and reserving space, collecting and delivering cargo to the points indicated by our clients, supervising the shipment, and handling customs clearance and transport to the job site.

– In 1997 you obtained the Quality Certificate, what can you tell us about this? Furthermore, how does Pérez y Cía. adapt to and keep pace with the rapid technological advancements of today?

Indeed, in February 1997, Lloyd's Register Quality Assurance certified our offices, awarding them the Quality Certificate under the ISO 9002 standard in Spain. In 2001, our companies in the Republic of Cuba were also certified, and the process began for our other offices in the Caribbean and Central America, with certification expected during 2002. We are currently in the transition process to achieve certification for our offices under the ISO 9001:2000 standard in February 2003.

We have committed to further improving our customer service department, along with the implementation and ongoing development of electronic information and communication systems. The new Integrated Management System (IMS) must be implemented in all group offices before the end of this year.

Furthermore, it should be noted that Pérez y Cía. has also invested in high information technology and e-commerce, as a strong commitment to the future, a platform providing global logistics services, being a participant in the Cargosuite platform, which operates in the Iberian Peninsula under the name of "Cargosuite Ibérica".

"We offer a door-to-door service, opening our organization to the latest marketing resources and techniques."

THE PEREZ GROUP AND CO.

PENINSULA:
Alicante, Avilés, Barcelona, Bilbao, Cádiz, Cartagena, Castellón, Gijón, Madrid, Málaga, Sagunto, Santander, Sevilla, Tarragona, Valencia, Vigo, Motril.

CANARY ISLANDS:
Santa Cruz de la Palma, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and Santa Cruz de Tenerife.

FOREIGN:
San Juan and Ponce (Puerto Rico), Santo Domingo (Dominican Republic), Havana and Santiago de Cuba (Cuba), Panama City and Cristóbal (Republic of Panama), and Kingston (Jamaica).