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While we hesitated to say 1996 was a great year, we won't hesitate to say so in 1997. Everything just came together. We continued our expansion and, of course, it was organic. Three new offices in Mexico – Nuevo Laredo, Guadalajara and Veracruz; North America – San Diego, Calexico and Nogales; India – Bangalore and Madras; France – Paris, Epinal, Lyon and Lille; England – Swindon; Ireland – Cork, Dublin and Shannon; Brazil – Santos; Argentina – Buenos Aires opened January 1998; South Africa – Capetown; Kuwait – Kuwait City. We were also successful in recruiting three of the top players in their fields. Albert Leung, Senior Vice President – Far East, is stationed in Hong Kong. He was with Northwest Airlines for the past 22 years and will now be in charge of our operations in Hong Kong, Manila, South China, Bangkok and Southeast Asia. Idevaldo Silva, Managing Director – Latin America, is stationed in São Paulo. He'll be in charge of all Latin America. His career began in Brazil in 1974, managing freight originating in the UK, France and Germany – valuable experience as we continue to expand in Latin America. Michael Austin joins us from Citibank as Vice President – Personnel Development. He is developing a consistent, integrated approach to recruiting, hiring, training and career path mapping. This newly created position will be global in scope. We experienced a “Peak Season” the first time in the past six years. A Peak Season is driven by particularly strong retail demand, and it can tax the congeniality of customers and employees alike. Our people came through with flying colours, and considering that it was the first Peak Season for many of them, their performance was outstanding. Just as important, our customers stood by us during this tumultuous period and we can't thank them enough. We continue to develop global agreements with our major ocean and air carriers. In addition to such agreements with British Airways and China Airlines we have added Lufthansa and Northwest Airlines. Work has been underway on our new World Headquarters in downtown Seattle, which should be completed in the fall of 1998. We needed a place to house our growing family and this 13-story building should keep us in good stead for many years. We will occupy half of it and eventually most of it. Should you be in the great city of Seattle, you are encouraged to visit us. We also purchased a facility in Inwood, New York. It incorporates over 100,000 square feet of office and warehouse, a great facility at JFK that includes a state-of-the-art training room. Of utmost concern is how the “Asia Currency Flu” will affect us. Fortunately we had our flu shots early: imports have always been strong and because we trade in U.S. Dollars there was virtually no effect on our business. Due to devaluation, 1998 imports should continue strong, putting some pressure on exports. In any event, we remain quite flexible. As a small company with the best employees we still have plenty of room to gain market share. Since 1984, when we went public, every quarter of every year our operating results have been successively better than the previous one. Naturally, the skeptics are waiting for us to “Hit the Wall”. When, or if, it happens we'll do the obvious: go around, over, under or through it. Sadly, we lost Leanne Payne, a dear member of our family from our Melbourne, Australia office. Leanne is survived by two young children and with the help of our employees we were able to set up a trust fund for them. We will continue to reinvest our profits back into the company with a focus on enhancements to our I.S. department, employee training, customer seminars, expansion, facilities and equipment. All to help us as we strive to be the best, which means that we'll never take anyone for granted: customers, employees or shareholders. They are our life's blood and we remember that every day. Thank you one and all for a great year. Sincerely,
Peter J. Rose
Kevin M. Walsh |
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