January 30, 2023
AGI News
As we’re now in 2023, we wanted to reflect on the year that was 2022. So welcome to our 2022 AGI highlights!
Back in January 2022 we were incredibly proud to have 12 AGI offices, with a team totalling 123 colleagues. Fast forward a year, and we had 18 offices and a team of 191 colleagues! And our growth shows no sign of slowing either!
2022 was fantastic year, and we are incredibly grateful to each and every member of the team for all of their hard work.
Read on to see what happened during 2022!
New Office Openings
During an incredibly busy 2022 we opened 6 brand new offices, welcoming 6 new office Directors to the AGI team.
In February we opened our Felixstowe office, which is run by Ross Faversham. The office is located just minutes away from Felixstowe dock and specialises in Sea Freight.
May saw us open 2 offices, one in Derby, and one in London. Our Derby office is situated just off the M1, and a few miles from East Midlands Airport. The office is run by Dale Cross, and the team specialise in Air Freight, Sea Freight and Road Freight.
Our new London office, which specialises in Air Freight, Sea Freight and Road Freight, is run by Paul Dyer and Jay Lockett, and is just moments away from the London Gateway Port. It’s perfectly located for all your freight needs!
In July we opened an office in Amsterdam. The office is run by Matt Pritchard, with a team locally dealing with freight requests, and the office specialises in European Road Freight.
During Q4 we opened our final 2 new offices of the year. Our Manchester office opened at the very end of October, closely followed by the Southampton office in November. Tom Wright runs the Manchester office, which specialises in Sea Freight and Road Freight, and Phillip Hoare runs Southampton, who specialise in all modes of transport.
The new AGI offices are all preforming incredibly well, and really complement our other offices around the UK.
New Premises
Due to our continued growth, a number of offices moved to much larger premises during 2022.
The Immingham office, headed up by Jesse Ramirez and Karl Edwards, moved to a new office and warehouse facility to allow for team expansion, and to increase their warehousing and storage capacity.
Even though Ross’ team in Felixstowe opened and February, and Dale’s team in Derby opened in May, they both oversaw an office move in 2022. Similar to Jesse & Karl, the moves will allow the teams to grow, and maximise the opportunities in their local areas.
The team in Birmingham also moved to a much larger office in 2022. This has allowed for team expansion, and continued growth of the business, and we also welcomed Scott Showell to AGI as the new Director of the Birmingham office.
Senior Leadership Team Appointments
In additional to the new Directors joining us to run the Felixstowe, Derby, London, Birmingham, Manchester and Southampton offices, we also welcomed Anna Mason, Alex Etchells and Steve Poole to the senior leadership team.
Anna joined us in January as our Group HR Director, and on the same day, Alex joined us as our Group Finance Director. Steve was appointed our Group Commercial Director in April, having previously held a senior sales role within the business.
These are incredibly important roles within our growing business, and Anna, Alex and Steve are making a hugely positive impact within the group.
Apprentices
During 2022 we continued our successful apprenticeship programme, with 6 new apprentices joining the team. We also celebrated 4 apprentices passing their apprenticeships!
Running this programme is hugely beneficial to the apprentices, as they specifically learn all about freight forwarding. Be it air, road or sea freight, they gain the specialist skills required for a career in freight forwarding.
Watch this space for more updates on our apprenticeship programme during 2023!
IATA Accreditation
Towards the end of 2022, we were delighted to become an accredited IATA Cargo Agent. This allows for industry recognition, as it’s a signal to airlines around the world that we are a financially competent freight forwarder. In addition, it allows us to be part of a worldwide distribution network of air freight forwarders and airlines. IATA has been the trusted trade association for the world’s airlines for nearly 80 years, and we’re incredibly proud to hold this accreditation.
The IATA Cargo Agency Program has been developed to enable any company involved in international air freight to simplify their interaction with airlines. The Cargo Agency Program also helps to streamline financial operations, along with offering multiple training programmes.
Additionally we are now a CASS (Cargo Accounts Settlement Systems) associate, which has been designed to simplify the billing between airlines and freight forwarders. Over 200 airlines, operating in over 90 countries, utilise this service for 100% on-time settlement.
ISO 9001 Certification
In May 2022 we were delighted to achieve ISO 9001 certification. This really shows our commitment to meeting our customers needs, and it ensures we will continue to drive improvements throughout the business.
During 2023 we plan to streamline even more of our processes. This will enable us to offer even quicker response times, and further improve our level of customer service. We will also be looking at any additional certification and accreditations available to us.
The Environment
Our impact on the environment is front and centre at AGI, and we are a proud partner of Ecologi. Working with Ecologi has allowed us to review our carbon footprint, and make the necessary offsets.
As a starting point, we have assessed the carbon footprint for our office in Folkestone. Following our assessment we have offset 116 tonnes of CO2. We have done this by supporting various offsetting projects, that range from generating wind power in Thailand, through to installing high efficiency cookstoves in Tanzania. We have also planted 10,149 tree’s across Madagascar, Kenya and Mozambique.
For a full breakdown of the carbon offsetting projects we have invested in, please click here.
2023… And Beyond!
2022 was a fantastic year for the team, and we are all really looking forward to what 2023 has in store for us.
There are some really big plans in place, and we look forward to working with our customers, suppliers and colleagues to make 2023 the best year yet!
How We Can Help You
Here at AGI we have a huge amount of experience when it comes to shipping goods all around the world. If you have a requirement for Air Freight, Sea Freight, or Road Freight, you can contact the head office team by calling 0330 004 1020. And for all of the latest AGI news, don’t forget to follow us on LinkedIn and Facebook!