Wavecrest Limited has reached an important milestone this weekend - The 21st February 2009 marked the 15th anniversary of the formation of Wavecrest Ltd.
Since it’s formation in 1994, Wavecrest Ltd has been based in Gravesend, Kent. Initially the business operated from a small office in Gravesend town centre before moving to their current office and warehouse facility at Denton Wharf overlooking the River Thames.
From the outset, Wavecrest Ltd has been active in international freight forwarding as well as ship’s agency services for vessels calling on the River Thames and River Medway. Following the move to Denton Wharf in 2002, warehousing services are also now provided.
Over the past fifteen years, we have prided ourselves on providing a high level of personal service to all our clients large or small. This is borne out by the fact that many of them have remained with us from the early days. We would like to take this opportunity to thank those that have supported us - in good times and bad.
We are often asked what unusual cargoes we have handled or if there are any projects which have required particular expertise. We can safely say we have had our share!
On the ship’s agency side we have handled a wide variety of different types of vessels. Some of them have provided particular challenges.
We have been agents for Greenpeace vessels calling in London on courtesy visits for several years. The visits usually involve a lot of shifts to different berths within the Port of London sometimes at short notice. The ships have a multi national crew and we provide close liaison with the UK Border Agency and the Greenpeace crew travel department when crew changes are required.
We have been involved in support work for various offshore wind farm and construction projects in the Thames Estuary, for example Kentish Flats. During a project, work continues 24 hours, 7 days a week and the specialised offshore vessels rarely come into port. This means that if a crew change is needed or any stores, they have to be transferred to the offshore vessel by boat, day or night - any day of the week.
On the freight forwarding side we have handled several unusual cargoes but one of the most memorable was….
A few years ago we arranged a removal from Gravesend to Lahore in Pakistan. That in itself may not seem particularly challenging. However, as well as arranging for the house contents to be packed and loaded into a 40′ container, we also had to arrange for Simba the Alsatian dog and Kevin the cat to be air freighted.
The animal’s owner had to measure the cat and dog from nose to tail (no mean feat!) so that we could have tailor made packing cases constructed for the journey to Pakistan. The animals were transported to Heathrow Airport to be held in quarantine for 24 hours before going on the same flight as their owners.
At our warehouse we have handled a very wide range of cargoes including all types of cars from vintage Rolls Royces to stretch limousines but our very first container was loaded with a helicopter from South Africa.
The rotor blade - which we later found out was valued at over £ 10000 alone! - has been dismantled and required very careful handling to avoid damage.
As we enter our sixteenth year in business, the UK finds itself deep in recession but we remain optimistic for the future and look forward to continuing to serve our clients to the best of our ability.
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