Whale Logistics - Fastest-Growing Company of the Year

Company: Whale Logistics, Ingleburn, NSW, Australia
Company Description: Whale Logistics is an award-winning Australian freight forwarder and logistics company. We deliver digital-focused freight forwarding services including comprehensive sea, air and road freight solutions, parcel delivery, customs clearance, ecommerce solutions, warehouse and distribution, and tracking.
Nomination Category: Company / Organization Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Fastest-Growing Company of the Year - in Asia, Australia and New Zealand

Nomination Title: Whale Logistics

Whale Logistics is an award-winning Australian freight forwarder and logistics company. We deliver digital-focused freight forwarding services including comprehensive sea, air and road freight solutions, parcel delivery, customs clearance, ecommerce solutions, warehouse and distribution, and tracking.

We ensure customers get their cargo to the right place, at the right time, at the right price.

Our service capabilities include:

- Sea freight. We’re ranked in the top five sea freight forwarding and logistics companies in Asia Pacific with offices in 16 out of the 20 largest sea ports in the world.
- Air freight. We provide on time deliveries for time-sensitive cargo and have strong airline relationships.
- Customs clearance. We have three customs brokers with 70 years experience between them. We have achieved over $1 million in duty returns for our customers.
- eCommerce and warehousing. We provide 3PL fulfillment services for same day delivery. Orders are tracked in real time. We manage customer service and returns handling. We provide secure storage for high value goods and 24/7 video surveillance and security monitoring.
Whale Logistics was founded in May 2015 with the goal of doing things differently in the industry and is now an industry leader.

In just six years in business, Whale Logistics has grown exponentially. In 2020 and 2019, we were recognised as one of the fastest growing companies in Asia, Australia and New Zealand, receiving a gold and silver award in the International Business Awards.

- Unlike our competitors, Whale Logistics has remained resilient throughout the pandemic, with no disruption to business operations. Our focus wasn’t just on survival, it was on how to embrace the opportunity to gain ground on our competitors.
- We grew our headcount in 2020, despite the impacts of COVID-19.
- Customer retention remained strong due to our focus on customer experience. We got back to basics; working with clients to understand their challenges during the pandemic and enabling them to continue to trade successfully.
- Schedule reliability has been the worst on record, creating uncertainty around shipping timelines. To counter this, we developed a software program which tracks and automates anticipated timelines in real time. For e.g. if a service used to take 14 days, but is now on average taking 20 days, that data is automatically updated to give us access to more accurate data.
- Our technology offering including an industry-leading automation solution and Vision Technologies (an integrated solution for buying, sourcing, production, delivery, supply chain and 3PL) is unrivalled.

Our growth has significantly outpaced our competitors. Whale Logistics thrived in 2020, despite the challenging conditions.

-Our efforts to optimise the business in the last six years have paid off throughout the pandemic. Our workforce was already agile and enabled for remote work. Our systems and processes were efficient and streamlined. Our ability to adapt to the conditions overnight combined with our industry-leading software created an unbeatable point of difference.
-While our local and global competitors cut jobs or stood staff down, we didn’t let anyone go due to the pandemic or cut pay.
-We didn’t lose any major clients. Our client retention rate was 92%. In this time we actually strengthened our client relationships by reinforcing our role as a strategic partner and advisor.
-We were able to adapt quickly to solve the biggest problem for our clients - schedule uncertainty - and ensure less disruption to their supply chain.