Executive Q&A with Sean Francisco, Chief Operating Officer – Americas, Apex Logistics

ACW: The U.S.-China trade war has had a significant impact on global trade. Can you describe the strategic thinking of how Apex identifies strategies and investment opportunities relating to the trade war?

APEX: Apex Logistics International Inc. is a global company, with a worldwide presence, servicing its customers in every country it is asked to. Solutions connecting emerging markets like Vietnam and Indonesia, reemerging markets like Taiwan and Malaysia across the Pacific, Europe and India, are ideal for a company with a primary focus on servicing its customers with value creation. We work with our strategic service providers in building sustainable solutions – and when this is not available commercially, we work collaboratively in removing risk from the equation for both parties through dedicated scheduled flights.

An example of this today is we operate three scheduled flights per week from Hong Kong to Chicago, two flights connecting our strategic gateway of Wuhan, China, to Chicago, and one flight Wuhan-Columbus. We have built dedicated roundtrip air and ground services connecting Vietnam to Wuhan to be a part of our scheduled services.

ACW: E-commerce demand has also continued strong in 2019. How does Apex address e-commerce shipping demand?

APEX: We invested early on in a model to help support the growth in e-commerce. Our investment model led to the building of an origin-and-destination technology solution that provides end-to-end e-commerce services, which is currently used by the largest B2B, B2C and C2C companies. It includes U.S. e-commerce section 321 low-value clearances and optimization of the final-mile delivery.

ACW: In your view, what should the industry keep in mind as it moves through the digitalization process?

APEX: The challenge for our industry is how to efficiently move across all geographies, languages, sectors, entities and regulatory bodies, etc. For Apex, we have introduced our technology to our customers, and the start has been precisely what we have planned for, really at all levels, whether you’re a Fortune 100 company or you’re an individual who’s trying to ship across the world. Along with our service providers, employees will use enhanced data and technology to be able to accomplish “it.” And I recognize “it” is not a professional word to use, but really, if you think about what we’re trying to do every day, it’s to accomplish something. Our technology is allowing not only our customers but our organization to be able to accomplish that as seamlessly and efficiently as possible.