Logistics company makes big move

Jacanna Customs & Freight is keeping more of its work in-house and says it is better able to compete with the “big boys” after shifting to new premises.

The Auckland company was previously based in Portage Road, New Lynn, but has recently made the short hop over to a larger site in Astley Avenue.

Blair Cosford, chief executive, says the move will increase the range of services it can provide and will deliver better results for its clients.

“We started moving in at the end of last year. It was quite a big transition with our warehouse, so we did not officially open until February 22nd,” he explains.

“We were in a building in Portage Road where the warehouse was 500-odd square metres and the office was 600sqm, so the office-to-warehouse ratio was not great and it meant handling of third-party logistics [3PL] for a couple of accounts had to be done off-site.

“By bringing more of what we do in-house it will be more profitable for us and more beneficial for our clients. We can now compete day-to-day with the big boys and are able to back it up with a good facility.”

The move has seen its warehouse space grow from about 600 square metres to 3,000sqm, and the new yard covers 8,000sqm. 

Cosford notes the new warehouse is split into three areas – a general cargo warehouse/3PL, a merchandise warehouse, and a bulk warehouse used for car and oversized cargo storage. The latter is set to be converted to handle the processing of imported vehicles.

Jacanna has also approved by the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) to be a transitional facility under Biosecurity NZ’s new regime, which came into force on July 1.

“Coming into this facility has also allowed us to install a wash bay approved by MPI. It means we can handle cars and other risk cargo that comes in by container and requires treatment by MPI,” adds Cosford.

“We were already a transitional facility for general cargo and had to be approved to accept and then unload containers coming to this site. 

“We have also gained approval for the treatment of containerised import vehicles and other risk cargo. The containers originate from our main trade lines such as Singapore, the UK, and the US. 

“Because of that experience we pretty quickly gained approval for the new Biosecurity NZ process for imports coming from Japan.”

Jacanna has four vehicle transporters and Cosford predicts it will be able to get vehicles swiftly out to compliance centres and dealers once they have completed biosecurity checks.

‘More flexibility’

Cosford says they chose the Astley Avenue site partly because of its size but also to make it convenient for staff, most of whom live in the west Auckland area.

He adds the facility allows Jacanna to handle more cargo in house rather than relying on other companies. 

“It’s tough when you’re using third parties because they set the guidelines and rules, whereas now if we need to get cargo out at the weekend or store cargo, we can do that. It provides us with more flexibility and solution-based products for our clients.

“It also allows us to be quite diverse in what we can provide to clients. Besides the wash bay, the merchandise side of things is new and we have a cage warehouse for pick packing merchandise orders, which was something we couldn't provide before.

“For the general cargo and palletised storage, we had been providing this service in our previous site, however the new site has allowed us to more than double our storage capacity.”

A possible move had been on the cards for the past two or three years as the business quickly outgrew what it could handle at its Portage Road site.

“When we started looking there was nothing coming up but then this facility became available and we seized the opportunity,” says Cosford.

“It feels like a hell of an achievement as a business because it's grown to where we now have 30 staff and a large facility, compared to when I started here six-and-a-half years ago and we were in a small office with nine or so staff. 

“The growth has been quick and to a level where it feels we can provide a really good service. It's now about making the most of this space and making this facility as efficient as possible.”