How to make the supply of foreign ships bigger and stronger

Step 1: Spin off the food supply business and focus on the supply of core materials

Founded in 1993, Guomao Foreign Shipping Supply Co., Ltd. is an enterprise approved to engage in the supply and service of foreign ships in ports. It specializes in providing a series of services such as meals, marine materials, and marine spare parts for ships on international voyages.

In the foreign ship supply service, providing food is an essential business. At first, Guomao Foreign Shipping Supply Company also engaged in food supply services. "But it involves too much manpower and material resources, and the entry threshold is low, so it is relatively easy to get involved in this market." Lin Xianjie, deputy general manager of the company, said that in 2005, the company decided to spin off this business and set up a special food supply company. In this way, the food outsourcing company is not only an affiliated unit of the service company, but also can provide professional services to other peers and become the same foreign service.

Guomao Foreign Shipping Supply Company focuses its energy on professional material supply. The company is equipped with professionals to purchase professional materials required by foreign ships such as marine materials, marine electrical appliances, and marine spare parts. "These materials require professional knowledge and services, and the entry threshold is higher." Lin Xianjie told reporters that the expansion of professional fields has made the company's sales continue to rise. The following year, the company's annual sales increased by 30%.

The second step: Holding hands with the foreign ship "big crocodile", the customer main body has changed from sailing ships to new shipbuilding and stripped off food services, which has made Guomao Foreign Shipping Company enter the first step of rapid development. Next, to be able to make a name for itself in the industry, I have to mention that the company has successfully entered the field of new shipbuilding in cooperation with the French Bourbon company.

Originally, most of the customers of China International Trade Foreign Shipping Supply Company were sailing ships, but the materials required for sailing ships were small and changed greatly. Lin Xianjie told reporters that sailing ships usually replenish food, tools, or daily necessities such as tissues and toothpicks when they are docked. These temporary supplies of goods are not only scattered and low-profit, but also require a lot of energy.

In contrast to this, new shipbuilding often requires a large and fixed supply of materials. Such as marine fire fighting, electromechanical, engine and other equipment, it also needs a complete set, a large number of tableware and kitchen utensils and other daily necessities. The total price of materials for a new ship is nearly 10 times the total price of materials required for ordinary sailing ships, and the profit is also quite large.

In order to be able to undertake new shipbuilding business and cultivate new markets, Guomao Foreign Shipping Supply Company began to try reforms. "The company has transformed from a simple form of commercial transactions to a systematic and large-scale packaging service." Lin Xianjie said, it is no longer the material that the shipowner needs, the company temporarily purchases whatever goods. Instead, the company itself first reserves a large amount of professional marine materials, and uses information technology to place these goods in different categories. At the time of delivery, according to the unique loading method, the materials are loaded into the container and packaged to the customer as a whole.

In addition, new shipbuilding also has particularly high requirements for materials, and many products have designated brands. "In particular, some brands are not sold in the domestic market." Lin Xianjie said, for this reason, the company has established long-term strategic cooperative relations with foreign professional ship material suppliers and brand manufacturers such as Germany, the Netherlands, and Singapore, and some special products are concentrated. Purchased from abroad, and then transferred to customers to provide convenience for customers.

With the recognition of a series of efficient and convenient services, Guomao Overseas Shipping Supply Company has become the only domestic supplier designated by French Bourbon, a world-renowned maritime service provider. The French Bourbon Company can undertake dozens of shipbuilding business every year in China, which also brings tens of millions of yuan in sales for the International Trade Foreign Shipping Supply Company. In addition, Zhejiang Xinle, Xiangshan Zhenghong and other shipyards have also established cooperative relations with it. Today, the material supply business of newbuildings has become the main source of Guomao's foreign ship supply company, and the company's market share in Ningbo's foreign ship supply market has jumped to 50%.

Step 3: Develop an intelligent system and establish an efficient service platform

One of the most important reasons for the efficient completion of the material supply of foreign ships is that the International Trade Foreign Ship Supply Company has a professional procurement and storage system. The company owns the ship material commodity database and supplier database system, and can provide a computer network service platform for foreign ship owners and ship manufacturers.

"The supply of materials for foreign ships has the characteristics of many links and complicated procedures, and the types of commodities involved are various and complicated." Lin Xianjie said that the company generally purchases corresponding materials according to the requirements of ship owners. These materials include tools, clothing, stationery, and marine-specific products, as well as some items that are not commonly found on the market. If there is no professional procurement system, it is difficult to buy everything in the same place, and it may take a long time to find the source of goods.

To this end, China International Trade Foreign Shipping Supply Co., Ltd. and a software company in Singapore jointly developed a matching procurement and warehousing system. The company also invests corresponding funds every year for system redevelopment. Not long ago, the company optimized the system again, and the company's database capacity increased from 30,000 to 70,000. The salesman can complete a material purchase online with just a click of the mouse, and the whole process takes only a few minutes.

The new model brings high efficiency. Lin Xianjie said that the replenishment of materials for a new ship usually takes a month, but the company can complete it within a week.