Supply chain management at sea is a vital core tenet of a successful marine enterprise, and that truth is understood intrinsically by the minds of Euroship Supplies. The company specialises in providing fresh provisions and essential commodities for ocean voyages of every kind. Its location in Gibraltar assures it a steady revenue stream on one of the world’s most active shipping lanes, where the Atlantic, the Mediterranean and the Suez Canal meet.
“We trade as a group of companies under the Gibmaroc Group,” disclosed George Desoisa, Director of Euroship Supplies. “The core business of that group is Gibmaroc Limited, an importation firm that has been going strong since the 1960s. That imported produce was then redistributed across the country to hospitals (through a Gibraltar Government tender contract), hotels, supermarkets, the Ministry of Defence, and so on.
“Through our imports business, we accumulated market share and continue to move significant volumes today,” Mr Desoisa continued. “However, we foresaw that that business stream alone would, by its nature, be constrained by the scale of the market, and that the only growth to be expected was organic growth. As such, my father – who even in his late seventies – he will be 80 this year – still works actively to promote this organisation today – recognised that we had infrastructure, warehousing and other assets at our disposal. It was then that the firm decided to put those to new use alongside existing business activity, and thus Euroship Supplies emerged.”
SPECIALISED SERVICE
Gibraltar is a popular and advantageously positioned location for vessels bunkering across a spectrum of maritime industries, and Euroship Supplies has developed the means by which to facilitate and complement those activities, as well as offering other services besides.
“We began as a partnership that operated by identifying and then supplying the technical items, provisions and other amenities that crews needed to conduct their work,” Mr Desoisa stated. “A little over three years ago, the decision was made to assume full control over the business entity that is now Euroship Supplies, which meant amicably splitting from other shareholders and consolidating our offering.”
With recent years seeing the business go from strength to strength, it is apparent that Euroship Supplies innately comprehends the requirements of even the most precisely operated vessels. The firm’s sizeable premises comprise 1,500sqm of covered warehousing – with accommodation for dry, ambient, chilled and frozen goods – while its business relationships see provisions entering Gibraltar from Europe and the wider world.
“In terms of volumes, around 180-200 tons of goods enter and leave our facility every week, which for a country of Gibraltar’s size is very significant,” Mr Desoisa related. “We are able to rapidly mobilise goods from truck to vessel and vice-versa, while our storage capacity enables us to manage extremely large inventories. We accomplish this with a staff roster of 50, and a vehicle fleet of 20 trucks.”
VALUED ALLIANCES
Euroship Supplies through its parent group, sustains strong ties with the Ministry of Defence.
“We have for many years supplied the Ministry of Defence, British Forces Gibraltar,” Mr Desoisa illustrated. “Helping to feed 400 men and women daily, as well as meeting the full supply requirements for all HM Navy vessels calling at Gibraltar.”
Recent socio-political events worldwide have seen what Mr Desoisa deftly described as ‘an uplift’ in Navy ship visitations, each of which have been met by the Gibmaroc Group/Euroship Supplies with professionalism and efficiency.
