Post by HardTimeTrucker on Aug 3, 2009 0:09:13 GMT -5
Precious Cargo
www.postandcourier.com/news/2009/aug/03/precious_cargo91200/
New SPA executive looks to halt sliding port volume
By Allyson Bird
The Post and Courier
Monday, August 3, 2009
Paul McClintock rarely eats alone.
In his 10 weeks as senior vice president and chief commercial officer at the State Ports Authority, McClintock has taken only two lunches and two dinners unaccompanied by a business contact. That's because in the wake of an international shipping backslide, McClintock carries the lofty task of selling and marketing the SPA to keep current customers and even to lasso some new ones.
McClintock
The agency predicts a nearly 20 percent container volume decline for the fiscal year that ended June 30. That follows a 10 percent decline the previous year, news that touched off state lawmakers' first calls for an SPA overhaul.
The year turned even more tumultuous after Charleston's top customer announced plans to relocate all its services, and the agency's chief executive resigned. But the SPA, under interim CEO John Hassell, who will be succeeded Sept. 1 by shipping executive Jim Newsome, created only one new position to shake things up: McClintock's.
The New Jersey native most recently worked as vice president of North American sales for global multimodal transportation company MOL (America) Inc., where he came to know the SPA as a customer. He plans to apply that perspective from his executive desk on the other side of port business.
His family still lives outside Atlanta, his previous work post, so McClintock feels free to answer e-mails at any hour and to turn every meal into a business prospect as he pushes through his first months. Over restaurant tables, he talks about rethinking how the agency perceives cargo, compensates employees and lures customers.
Bulking up
Massive metal boxes lifted by cranes on and off ships translate into faster-moving cargo that demands less manpower.
Containerized shipments are king at the SPA, accounting for about 85 percent of port business.
But with international container trade tumbling, the agency began aggressively courting shipments known as bulk and breakbulk — items such as power turbines and aggregate rock that are too large or cumbersome to transport in containers.
McClintock said those shipments make sense now because they require so much more labor at a time when the state unemployment rate exceeds 12 percent.
"It doesn't make us a lot of money, but it is good for the community," he said.
McClintock aims to grow noncontainerized cargo by 10 percent this fiscal year. That means beefing up operations at the port's two quietest facilities: Veterans Terminal in North Charleston and the Port of Georgetown.
About 40 people gathered in Georgetown last week to celebrate a new 20-year contract at the port, where annual cargo volume has skidded over the past decade to about 250,000 tons from 1.7 million tons. The contract with renewable energy exporter Carolina-Pacific LLC marks one of five prospects that McClintock says could translate to $5.4 million in new annual revenue.
Georgetown County Economic Development Director Wayne Gregory said the Carolina-Pacific deal could set a precedent.
"It means we have more traffic and customers, and we hope it'll enable us to drive more business," he said.
But getting those other four contracts could prove tougher.
Because the company plans to grow gradually, Carolina-Pacific agreed to the deal even though the Port of Georgetown is overdue for harbor deepening and reaches only 21 feet in some places, according to McClintock.
"In a year, if we don't have 27 feet, they go away," he said.
The SPA faces federal funding hurdles from the Army Corps of Engineers because of the port's lack of business. Yet the business shortage, in part, stems from the need for depth.
With the Carolina-Pacific contract in hand, McClintock is preparing a presentation for the Army Corps with this message: "We're not doing the chicken or the egg scenario. We've got the business."
Sales call
To get that business, though, McClintock first shook up his sales teams, dividing the customer base by the two primary cargo types instead of the six terminals.
He credits the new prospects at Georgetown to the longtime port director there, David Schronce. A 25-year bulk cargo veteran, Schronce now heads up sales for the entire agency in that arena.
As Schronce put it, "For the second time now, we're rebuilding Georgetown."
McClintock also gave a new directive to his employees courting container business: Go after the shipping lines, but go deeper by calling on their customers, too.
If port officials can find deals and win over the companies that hold title to the freight, known as beneficial cargo owners, they make it harder for steamship lines to leave, McClintock contends.
The sales team learned, for instance, that one customer moved 400 containers through top rival port Savannah because truckers out of Charleston charged $50 more per container. The group worked to get a more competitive rate, and the customer transferred 100 containers here, according to McClintock.
"Although it's going to negatively impact the number of sales calls, I think it's a far more powerful message," he said about the new approach.
For so long, sales success at the SPA has been measured in monthly increments of 20-foot-long containers. To make sure employees stick to the new focus, McClintock tasked Fred Stribling, vice president of marketing and sales, and new hire Art Pruett, general manager for cargo sales, with developing a system to reward employees for targeting beneficial cargo owners as well.
McClintock acknowledged that the SPA, for the past several years, earned a reputation for focusing on the bottom line and doling out employee incentives accordingly.
"Compensation based on margin means you turn down business opportunities that might conflict with that objective, and that might conflict with our business-development objective," he said. "That is something that has to change. We have to develop business. We have to develop jobs."
Reach Allyson Bird at 937-5594 or abird@postandcourier.com.
www.postandcourier.com/news/2009/aug/03/precious_cargo91200/
New SPA executive looks to halt sliding port volume
By Allyson Bird
The Post and Courier
Monday, August 3, 2009
Paul McClintock rarely eats alone.
In his 10 weeks as senior vice president and chief commercial officer at the State Ports Authority, McClintock has taken only two lunches and two dinners unaccompanied by a business contact. That's because in the wake of an international shipping backslide, McClintock carries the lofty task of selling and marketing the SPA to keep current customers and even to lasso some new ones.
McClintock
The agency predicts a nearly 20 percent container volume decline for the fiscal year that ended June 30. That follows a 10 percent decline the previous year, news that touched off state lawmakers' first calls for an SPA overhaul.
The year turned even more tumultuous after Charleston's top customer announced plans to relocate all its services, and the agency's chief executive resigned. But the SPA, under interim CEO John Hassell, who will be succeeded Sept. 1 by shipping executive Jim Newsome, created only one new position to shake things up: McClintock's.
The New Jersey native most recently worked as vice president of North American sales for global multimodal transportation company MOL (America) Inc., where he came to know the SPA as a customer. He plans to apply that perspective from his executive desk on the other side of port business.
His family still lives outside Atlanta, his previous work post, so McClintock feels free to answer e-mails at any hour and to turn every meal into a business prospect as he pushes through his first months. Over restaurant tables, he talks about rethinking how the agency perceives cargo, compensates employees and lures customers.
Bulking up
Massive metal boxes lifted by cranes on and off ships translate into faster-moving cargo that demands less manpower.
Containerized shipments are king at the SPA, accounting for about 85 percent of port business.
But with international container trade tumbling, the agency began aggressively courting shipments known as bulk and breakbulk — items such as power turbines and aggregate rock that are too large or cumbersome to transport in containers.
McClintock said those shipments make sense now because they require so much more labor at a time when the state unemployment rate exceeds 12 percent.
"It doesn't make us a lot of money, but it is good for the community," he said.
McClintock aims to grow noncontainerized cargo by 10 percent this fiscal year. That means beefing up operations at the port's two quietest facilities: Veterans Terminal in North Charleston and the Port of Georgetown.
About 40 people gathered in Georgetown last week to celebrate a new 20-year contract at the port, where annual cargo volume has skidded over the past decade to about 250,000 tons from 1.7 million tons. The contract with renewable energy exporter Carolina-Pacific LLC marks one of five prospects that McClintock says could translate to $5.4 million in new annual revenue.
Georgetown County Economic Development Director Wayne Gregory said the Carolina-Pacific deal could set a precedent.
"It means we have more traffic and customers, and we hope it'll enable us to drive more business," he said.
But getting those other four contracts could prove tougher.
Because the company plans to grow gradually, Carolina-Pacific agreed to the deal even though the Port of Georgetown is overdue for harbor deepening and reaches only 21 feet in some places, according to McClintock.
"In a year, if we don't have 27 feet, they go away," he said.
The SPA faces federal funding hurdles from the Army Corps of Engineers because of the port's lack of business. Yet the business shortage, in part, stems from the need for depth.
With the Carolina-Pacific contract in hand, McClintock is preparing a presentation for the Army Corps with this message: "We're not doing the chicken or the egg scenario. We've got the business."
Sales call
To get that business, though, McClintock first shook up his sales teams, dividing the customer base by the two primary cargo types instead of the six terminals.
He credits the new prospects at Georgetown to the longtime port director there, David Schronce. A 25-year bulk cargo veteran, Schronce now heads up sales for the entire agency in that arena.
As Schronce put it, "For the second time now, we're rebuilding Georgetown."
McClintock also gave a new directive to his employees courting container business: Go after the shipping lines, but go deeper by calling on their customers, too.
If port officials can find deals and win over the companies that hold title to the freight, known as beneficial cargo owners, they make it harder for steamship lines to leave, McClintock contends.
The sales team learned, for instance, that one customer moved 400 containers through top rival port Savannah because truckers out of Charleston charged $50 more per container. The group worked to get a more competitive rate, and the customer transferred 100 containers here, according to McClintock.
"Although it's going to negatively impact the number of sales calls, I think it's a far more powerful message," he said about the new approach.
For so long, sales success at the SPA has been measured in monthly increments of 20-foot-long containers. To make sure employees stick to the new focus, McClintock tasked Fred Stribling, vice president of marketing and sales, and new hire Art Pruett, general manager for cargo sales, with developing a system to reward employees for targeting beneficial cargo owners as well.
McClintock acknowledged that the SPA, for the past several years, earned a reputation for focusing on the bottom line and doling out employee incentives accordingly.
"Compensation based on margin means you turn down business opportunities that might conflict with that objective, and that might conflict with our business-development objective," he said. "That is something that has to change. We have to develop business. We have to develop jobs."
Reach Allyson Bird at 937-5594 or abird@postandcourier.com.