Toy World spoke to Mike Thomas, client services director, about Import Services’ new £24m Southampton distribution hub.

Mike Thomas sings the praises of Import Services’ teams, which he says were ‘amazing’ throughout the pandemic and have coped admirably with Brexit too. As the markets reopened with a surge in Q4 last year, the company then processed the highest volume throughput in Import Services’ history despite CV-19 restrictions to its normal working practices.

Now, the company is opening its new £24m distribution hub, which will allow Import Services to continue growing with its customers and expand its capacity.

“Import Services’ operation at Southampton container port is a real success story,” explains Mike. “There’s no other distribution centre located just 200 metres from where the largest container ships dock from the Far East, the origin of most of our clients’ products. Our unique port-centric model allows us to move containers swiftly from the arriving vessels into our distribution centres, where we process orders to market at an unrivalled speed.”

Mike explained how the use of technology is further accelerating its services, and how sustainability has been a core consideration when building the new hub. Mike says: “Cutting ‘Time, Cost and Carbon’ are the three factors which help make Import Services’ port-centric business model so compelling.”

He also discusses the ongoing shipping disruption with continues to impact industry across the globe, venturing his opinion on when we might expect a return to normality, and outlined what it is that sets Import Services apart in the logistics marketplace.

To read the full Q&A, which was published in the June issue of Toy World, click here.

The July issue of Toy World will feature a more in-depth behind-the-scenes look at the new hub.