Please tell us the history of BAYPORT Global Supplies from its founding until today.
Bayport was founded 45 years ago, in 1979, under the name of Puerto y Bahía. Its founder, Rafael Fernández Vega, started out as a general ships supplier in the port of Cadiz, and a few years later expanded his activities to other ports such as Seville, Huelva, Algeciras, El Puerto de Santa María and Rota.
The increase in business volume led the company to open its headquarters in a well-connected industrial area in Puerto Real in 2005.
I, the current CEO, was part of the team from the very beginning. Later, I took over the reins of the company and we shaped it into what Bayport is today. Our innovative spirit drove us to the opening of commercial missions in various countries and Bayport's increasing participation in international trade fairs.
This desire to grow led to the introduction of a new way of working and the expansion of our client portfolio. Experience, innovation, efficiency, immediacy and security have become the values of the company and gave us a positive geographical expansion with 9 branches opened in recent years, allowing us to offer an increasingly complete and comprehensive service to all our customers.
In 2017, what was previously known as Puerto y Bahía evolved into Bayport, with a new corporate and visual image and a name adapted to a better internationalization.
In 2022, due to the growth of its business, Bayport moves its headquarters to El Puerto de Santa María (Cadiz). The company is currently located in a large and modern warehouse.
What services do you offer to Shipping Companies?
At Bayport we are specialized in the supply of all types of vessels: military, cargo, fishing, rescue, training, research and cruise. We have over 45 years of experience in supplying ships and customers in the most relevant sectors of the market.
We offer a wide range of services such as food service, with a specific stock of national and international products imported directly from countries such as China, India, Italy or the United Kingdom, or technical equipment, with a wide catalogue of hand and power tools, spare parts and machinery from the main manufacturers in the maritime industry.
We can also provide services to ships and auxiliary industries during construction or repair in shipyards and supply duty free products to the crew and passengers. We have a dedicated division with a highly qualified team to supply offshore units too.
We take care of the customs clearance to make sure things delivered to our customers just in time. This includes services under the general import and export regime, under special regimes such as transit, customs and bonded warehouses, or technical inspection services such as veterinary at border control.
Are these services certified according to international quality assurance standards?
Every day we improve the quality of our service and the customers satisfaction.
And we are not alone in this. We have certifications from bodies that impartially assess our efforts and performance in areas such as information security, environmental management and reducing our carbon footprint, food safety and others.
We are AEO: we carry out all our activities in accordance with the requirements of the customs authorities as Authorised Economic Operator (AEO). This recognition by Customs confirms us as a trusted partner, providing security and reliability in the international supply chain.
Certified quality: we regularly implement new work processes to achieve ISO certifications. In addition, we work with other organisations to ensure that our service meets existing service provider standards, including the ISSA Quality standard.
What are the reasons why shipping companies would choose you over your competitors?
Wide Coverage: due to Bayport’s fully owned wide network of branches situated in all major ports throughout Spain, we are able to service our customers and offer the same pricing structure to our clients at all Spanish ports. Our customers will receive the same price, service and quality wherever their vessels are, delivered by our fully owned in-house Fleet of Refrigerated Trucks being able to transport goods 24/7 throughout Spain.
Asides from this our procurement team is purchasing worldwide in containers giving us the added advantage on pricing, and the ability to have available in all branches the same brands and models of all products for our clients.
Know-How: most of the team leaders joined Bayport immediately after higher education without any previous experience in this industry. This is a key factor as they don’t bring bad habits from previous jobs. They were all educated in the principles and core values of Bayport from zero;
Empathy for the seamen who spend long periods far from home and their families: Bayport works to make the impossible happens, as a team we aim to ensure that each vessel leaves with the supplies she has ordered and happy in the knowledge that we have hopefully made life a little easier for them.
We boast of a very low staff rotation level; this makes a significant difference. Today all our team leaders count with wide experience in the ship supply industry, thanks to constant training, we are able to transmit values and experience to the younger generations in the best manner, always remembering that we are a team.
Flexibility: change of port of call? No problem! Thanks to our existing branches and a very comprehensive trucking network, we can quickly shift the port of supply. All our delegations count with large stocks and same range of products as the headquarters.
Last Minute order? No problem! Bayport is proud to hold the largest stock in Spain. Thanks to this fact, and our modern warehouses, equipped with robotic systems, the collection time has been reduced dramatically. We are able to supply any order at record-breaking speed.
What are Bayport's products? / What are Bayport's core offerings or areas of expertise?
Bayport’s Products are the full range of provisions, technical stores and duty-free items as well as Logistics.
The storage capacity, the wide range of products and the large stocks, makes the difference.
Core offerings are the experience and expertise of a team that has a wealth of knowledge and have been together for many years.
How have the ongoing piracy and the war events in the Indian Ocean affected your company?
It is affecting our purchases. Vessels are changing usual routes to avoid piracy or attacks. This fact makes that usual sailing time is significantly increased with the consequent increase on fuel consumption which, of course, is added to cost price.
Regarding sales, to be honest, the ongoing piracy has not really affected us in any detrimental way in fact it has boosted turnover with supplies of razor wire, water cannons, dummies, night vision binoculars and many other items.
