Company Report: Allyn International
Forwarding, outsourcing, consulting Supply Chain Digital profiles Allyn International, a leader in the provision of world-class logistics

Allyn International was established in 1992

The company is a leader in the provision of world-class logi

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As a business you want to be able to focus on your core competencies. You don’t want to waste time trying to solve a problem you have no knowledge of, or work in a field you have no experience in. This is precisely why outsourcing exists. After all, you want to focus on what you do best.

But to achieve success, you need a trusted partner – a partner like Allyn International.

“Allyn International Services is a first-class 4PL and 3PL logistics, customs and tax service provider,” says Allen Trevett, Managing Director. “We have built our reputation on good, honest work, allowing clients to focus on their core competencies.”

Allyn, as it is more commonly known, was established in 1992 by Trevett and co-founder Julie Willard, who died rather tragically in 2008. The company remains privately-held.

“Although more than a decade has passed since we founded the company, the vision remains the same – as the global marketplace evolves, we will adapt to clients’ growing needs by broadening and enhancing services,” says Trevett, who explained that the company is “dedicated to providing high quality, customer-centric services for the global marketplace,” and that it “conducts business in more than 17 languages”.

Indeed, the firm is located throughout North America, Europe and Asia and has regional headquarters in Fort Myers, Florida, Shanghai and Prague, in the Czech Republic. The company uses ALA™, its own web-based proprietary transportation management system, to execute and manage all shipments.

“Our core products include transportation management, logistics sourcing, freight forwarding, supply chain consulting, tax management, and customs compliance,” Trevett continues. “Our growth was largely achieved by partnering with clients in the power generation industry.”

Today, Allyn’s clients range from small local businesses to Fortune 500 firms. And, says Trevett, they work in industry sectors as diverse and wonderful as power generation, construction, electronics, manufacturing, mining and drilling, oil and gas and healthcare. “We are also seeing increased demand in renewable sectors,” he says, adding that the company would never have gotten to where it is today without the skill, dedication and commitment of its highly trained personnel.

“Our team is just great,” says Trevett.

Importantly, he adds, employees share the same core values and it is this which has driven the company forward since its inception.

“We are all focused on achieving exceptional results and thinking creatively,” says Trevett.

IMPACT OF RECESSION ON LOGISTICS INDUSTRY
Of course, global recession has had an impact on almost all areas of business, all over the world. Logistics is no different. Logistics is a department that is mainly related to sourcing, supplying and delivering. It has everything to do with the transport. If the overall business is down, the logistics will also end up being slow.

“The last 12 months have been pretty solid, but we are concerned about orders and what we have seen in terms of volume drops in the last three months,” says Trevett. “A lot of the businesses and subsequent projects we support were in the pipeline long before the global financial crisis hit, so in that respect we have been shielded. But what we are seeing now is that things are starting to slow up in some areas of the business.

"The projects segment of our business has fared much better than the short-term businesses. And our geographic spread has been beneficial in the respect that we have access to more markets and can spread risk.”

Global recession has had a major impact on logistics because the industry works on a specific pattern of demand and supply. Demand and supply can be very dynamic, and they keep changing every day.

“In a recession, demand does tail off; fewer goods, generally speaking, are supplied – that’s a side effect,” says Trevett. “But, we continue to try to invest in people and training. We are cutting back in terms of dollars, but not substance. We keep experience. And we move people around strategically, looking for opportunity – this approach was successful when we branched into Russia in 2008. That makes great sense.”

He explains that despite the tough conditions, enquiries are rising, although the number of those that end in deals is disproportionately low. “We’re hoping that some of those will turn into orders when the market improves and our customers are able to move forward,” says Trevett.

“We are seeing improvement in most segments and think we’ve hit the bottom and things will continue to grow as exhibited by some increase in volume.”

With customers that include the U.S. Federal Government, a growing number of renewable energy firms and some of the world’s biggest companies, Allyn is well-placed to emerge from the recession a stronger, more efficient entity.

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