A Memorable 2018 – Hemisphere’s Year in Review

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By Hemisphere

With the end of the year fast approaching, it’s time to reflect on the one that’s been and prepare for the next one. It’s safe to say 2018 was a fantastic year for Hemisphere, so we thought we’d take a look back at some of the highlights.

An Award-Winning Year for Hemisphere

As years go, 2018 was an incredibly proud one for everyone at HFS, with the company winning and being shortlisted for a number of coveted awards. It started late in 2017 when HFS was nominated for the Ocean Services Award at the BIFA Freight Service Awards and Louis Perrin was nominated for Young Freight Forwarder, which he went on to win in January 2018. The success continued at the 2018 BIFA Freight Service Awards, where HFS was nominated for both the Project Forwarding Award and Staff Development Award.

HFS was also awarded Best European Project Partner at the WCA Projects Network (WCAPN) annual conference. We have been a proud partner of WCA for a number of years, and we very much appreciated the recognition at the 12th WCAPN annual conference, held at the Grand Elysee Hotel in Hamburg, Germany.

Following his BIFA Young Freight Forwarder of the Year award, our Director Louis Perrin went on to win the prestigious FIATA Young International Freight Forwarder of the Year award in October. “I’m overwhelmed to win this award,” said Louis. “The competition was challenging, and so much hard work went into it.”

BIFA nomination

An Ever-Expanding Team

2018 was busy as ever at HFS as we continued to grow our skilled team of specialists. In the last 12 months, HFS welcomed a number of new staff:

  • Julie Nixon, who has close to 20 years experience in the freight industry, joined us as Business Development Manager and has already proved to be an exciting asset to HFS.
  • Christopher McNeill joined resident specialist Lee Pearson in the Import Solutions department after over a decade’s worth of experience in deep sea shipments with various well-known brands.
  • Kirsty Snyman was welcomed into the Business Development team as Business Development Manager alongside Julie Nixon. Kirsty moved to the UK from South Africa, where she worked with partner company SAMC.
  • Sergio Borges came on board as Air Sales Co-Ordinator at our London Heathrow office. Sergio joined HFS after spending time with both Jan de Rijk and Boeing, and previously spent over two decades working in media, journalism and IT.
  • Michael Stanton joined HFS as a Business Development Manager for the Skelmersdale Commercial department, with at least 15 years of experience in niche areas of logistics under his belt.
  • Robert Jones became a valued member of the Airfreight Sales department as a Sales Coordinator. Robert joined with the thirst for a new industry and lots of experience in administration.

Recent additions to the Hemisphere team include Rachael Watson (Key Accounts Logistics Administrator); Claire Acland (Export Operations); Katie Hand (Import Operations); Linda Crompton (Logistics Solutions); Jack Reddington (Apprenticeship Scheme); and Nathan Harlan (Recyclables Logistics). We’re delighted to have them all on board, and they’re already delivering huge value to the company.

Elsewhere, we were happy to promote members of the team in recognition of their brilliant work for the company. Katie Murphy enjoyed a promotion early on in the year, becoming our new Ocean Export Supervisor. Katie’s knowledge and expertise go hand-in-hand with her can-do attitude, which has been fed back to HFS a number of times by clients. Dan Leach was also promoted to Projects Team Manager following his great work as part of the Projects team.

We Are Proud to Sponsor…

HFS always works hard to contribute to the community, and 2018 was another success as we stretched our sponsorship legs to give a little something back. We started the year by signing a sponsorship deal with Supersport motorbike racer Jamie Perrin, who enjoyed a successful year’s racing.

We also contributed to the Inspire Suffolk Golf Day, sponsoring Hole 1 for the day and enjoying a spot of golf. The golf day was held at Ufford Park Woodbridge and we were delighted to contribute towards a donation total of £4,500. We’ve maintained a strong relationship with Inspire Suffolk, and are lucky to have been able to offer extra support throughout the year as a member of the Inspire 30 business club, including work experience opportunities.

Back in September, we supported Bob Salt (brother of our Financial Director, Danny Salt) as this year’s Club Captain of Brett Vale Golf Club in support of St Helena Hospice in Colchester. Bob raised £3,000 during his week, which included our sponsorship of one of the competitions and a £500 donation for the hospice.

Finally, to cap off a fantastic year raising money for charity, we sponsored Kara Thurkettle, an SEO Executive at StrategiQ Marketing, who took part in a charity boxing match in aid of Cancer Research UK.

Work Hard, Play Hard

To thank all of HFS’ amazing staff, who work tirelessly on a daily basis, we made plans to refurbish the breakout room to provide a much-needed relaxation space. The new breakout room includes a pool table, table tennis, a football table and a dartboard for everyone to enjoy as well as kitchenettes for the individual offices.

We have always believed in making sure our staff are as happy as possible, allowing plenty of space for team members to relax and unwind whenever they need to. “From the feedback I have had from our team, it would seem everyone is absolutely delighted with the new space,” said Managing Director Andy Perrin. “It’s great to see everyone enjoy it as thanks for their hard work.”

We’d like to thank everyone for their support, custom and hard work in 2018, and look forward to a successful 2019 brings for the HFS team and its clients.