GAC Pindar
GAC Pindar, the UK marine leisure, sports and event logistics division of GAC Group, is leveraging its sponsorship of The Shipyard at the 2024 Southampton International Boat Show to showcase its expertise in a range of freight-forwarding services to the British Marine membership.
The Shipyard is Southampton International Boat Show’s vibrant entertainment hub, which became an instant hit when it debuted at the show last year. This year, the area will once again provide a buzzing focal point for exhibitors and visitors alike, with street food, live music and sports-screening creating a festival-like vibe.
GAC Pindar’s collaboration with British Marine represents a first foray into sponsorship with the trade association for the global logistics company. Their relationship with high profile events is already well-established through their event freight forwarding, consultancy and site management expertise. The specialist division provided logistics for The Ocean Race for the last three editions, as well as previously for SailGP, the GC32 Racing Tour and Extreme Sailing Series.
This new partnership will enable them to broaden opportunities relating to the company’s full portfolio of services which include chartering services, ship agency and bunkering.
Commercial Manager, Harry Spedding says: “As part of the larger GAC family, we have extensive capabilities in freight forwarding, supply chain and expertise across the commercial import/export sector. Placing our name alongside The Shipyard puts us in front of potential customers, but it is also about bringing our colleagues from the other aspects of the GAC business and showing them what we do. It’s a two-fold activation.
Facilitating wider growth among the marine leisure industry is fundamental to GAC Pindar’s own continued success. As Harry explains: “It’s really important for us to help our customers grow their businesses because ultimately that leads to more business for us. It’s that simple; if we can help them grow, it helps us grow.
“Supporting British Marine through our sponsorship of The Shipyard at Southampton International Boat Show will be a great opportunity to reach out to current and potential customers, give them the chance to sit down with us and ask the difficult questions about import/export, so that they’ve got more confidence in growing their business.”
It's an alliance that will not only elevate The Shipyard’s festival vibe – including late night openings on both the Saturdays – but will aptly encapsulate GAC Pindar’s passion for supporting the marine leisure community, as well as its longstanding leadership and innovation in shipping and logistics. GAC Pindar’s return to British Marine membership, made earlier this year, will further strengthen those connections.
This commitment to the industry can be traced back to 2011, when GAC Pindar was first established as a part of the wider GAC Group. That was thanks to founding partner Andrew Pindar, a forward-thinking ambassador for the sport who proposed a leisure marine-specific logistics business partnership with a service-focussed ethos.
Today, GAC Pindar benefits from access to the wider GAC Group’s extensive network, built over nearly 70 years and currently operating in more than 50 countries worldwide, with around 7,500 staff in 300+ offices. Additionally, a network of preferred partners enables operations to extend to yet more countries. The company’s administration system facilitates slick cooperation between their global offices. And by utilising this global network coupled with local expertise, GAC Pindar can deliver anywhere in the world.
In anticipation of growth in the marine leisure sector, GAC UK has recently relocated its south coast shipping operations with GAC Pindar at Harbour House, Town Quay – just a stone’s throw from the Southampton International Boat Show venue – enabling yet greater efficiencies. GAC Group’s UK operations alone enable access to a network of freight forwarding services with 20+ offices nationwide.
One of the most dynamic aspects of the company’s operations comes in day-to-day problem solving, with the team handling jobs of all scales and sizes around the globe. The most recent high-profile undertaking was to ship the British America’s Cup AC75 yacht Britannia 1,000 miles from Northamptonshire, UK to Barcelona, Spain, via the Portsmouth-Bilbao ferry route – a journey totalling four days. This followed their major role in relocating the British team’s base from UK to Palma, Majorca and then again to Barcelona, ahead of the 37thAmerica’s Cup this summer.
GAC Pindar is not only focused on large-scale jobs. “As well as the bigger, more glamorous projects, we also deal with far smaller scale, day-to-day jobs too. It’s a really fascinating mixture. We have a whole team of experts specialising in individual areas, which means we can help with everything from couriering a one-off critical spare part to delivering a 40ft yacht to the other side of the globe or managing canal transits for superyachts.”
Harry Spedding Commercial Manager at GAC PindarWhen it comes to small businesses, one of the key areas GAC Pindar is increasingly called upon to help with, particularly post-Brexit, is navigating the time-consuming complexities of customs.
“In the same week as we moved INEOS Britannia, we also worked with a new business to move one pallet of eco-friendly boat cleaner from the UK to a warehouse in Holland for distribution in Europe. Due to the time taken in organisation and administration to help them through exporting for the first time, it’s not something we made money on. But by helping a new company to distribute that initial pallet throughout Europe, the hope is that becomes more than one pallet, it becomes two, three or more. Our aim is to help them grow by teaching them what’s needed for export and using our expertise to help simplify things. It’s highly rewarding to be able to help new companies to grow in that way.
“Whatever product it is we’re dealing with – whether it’s soap or race boat blocks or sails or paint – we are acutely aware that the people we are dealing with are experts in their product. However, they may not be experts in dealing with European bureaucracy. If you want to export to Europe, you’re not exporting to Europe, you’re exporting to 27 separate countries, as we are no longer a part of the European trading bloc. There is a host of separate laws and different rules for each country. Navigating those rules and providing cost-effective solutions is our forte.”
Another area of GAC innovation is the provision of CO2 emissions tracking, providing customers with complete transparency from the point of quotation using a customer- facing portal to provide individual shipment data. Along with the use of cargo load optimisation software and advising on minimising packaging waste, it’s an industry-leading offering that has helped attract companies which share GAC Pindar’s commitment to sustainability.
“We feel it’s important to provide information so people can make informed, fact-based choices,” says Harry.
Such whole-system benefits are offered to all clients, no matter how big or small. Underpinning this is a friendly and knowledgeable team with a huge breadth of expertise, not only in marine but also in the wider sports, leisure and events management sector.
The team are united by a commitment to helping the leisure marine sector grow, and where better to showcase that than at the Southampton International Boat Show? As Harry sums up: “Everybody at the boat show has a product they sell, and most people are either importing and/or exporting products and/or parts. ![GAC_Pindar_SIBS_Logistics_Hub_BOOKINGS[24].png](/application/files/6117/2137/7277/GAC_Pindar_SIBS_Logistics_Hub_BOOKINGS24.png)
“We want to help businesses grow and that’s also good for us. We are offering the opportunity to sit down with one of our specialists with no commitment. It can be used as a health check against what you’re currently doing, or you could use it as a way of planning for future exports. We’d love to encourage new businesses who are keen to start exporting but who are perhaps hesitant because of the costs and complexities involved. There is a lot we can do to allay fears in that area, and we are more than happy to set up an initial meeting to start the ball rolling. You can find us in the Members’ area of the British Marine Lounge throughout the Show."
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