Late last month, the company broke ground at the site for its new 3000 square foot building which will located at the mouth of the entrance to St. Kitts’ shipping hub, the Sea Port and construction has since begun.
Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the company, Damion Hobson, explained to MiyVue.com that a number of factors influenced the move to acquire the property for construction of the new offices. He indicated however that ensuring that the high level of services which is provided to customers, is improved is one of the major determining factors.
“Part of it is that we have outgrown the current spaces; we have expanded our staff and we have expanded services that we’ve providing certainly within 12 months and so for the comfort of the employees, for the expansion of the business and for the comfort of the customers, we decided to make this huge investment to build our new office.”
The two-storey structure will feature 2000 sq ft of office space and 2000 sq ft of warehouse space, as explained by Hobson.
Hobson Enterprises is often referred to as just a brokerage company but as explained by the CEO, it is a company that caters holistically to the persons and businesses’ shipping needs.
“Right now we offer customs brokerage trucking services, we represent a number of foreign businesses including UPS which is a courier service. We also represent Crowley Shipping line which is continuous cargo, we deal with Xpress Freight Services which is a freight forwarder in Miami and also we deal with the MV Imani which is the weekly small vessel between St. Kitts and St. Maarten.”
With construction of the building well underway, the projection is that it will be completed by early November, 2011 and once the new and improved space is occurred, Hobson explained, the general focus would be on improving existing services. He noted however, that free Wi-Fi service for customers and access to a laptop would be part of the move, which would afford customers the opportunity to access invoices which they may need and would have inadvertently left at their homes.
“In our new building, we probably won’t do anything right away; its really just to strengthen what we have and make what we have a lot better…between all four or five platforms to make sure that when a customer comes to us, they get a holistic approach to their shipping needs. The new building will allow us to do that because we have more space to organise, more space to spread out. Once we take that to another level whereby we are satisfied, we can look at whatever else opportunity lies there.
“…There will be wheelchair accessibility to the building, we are going to pub the customer area downstairs, presently in our current building, everything is upstairs so customers have to walk upstairs…free Wi-Fi for customers to access whatever documentation they need…A computer will be provided for customers to use in the event that they forgot their shipping documents and would want to access a copy of it online. Proper parking, which is also a plus for customers, would be available at the new compound.”
Asked why customers should choose Hobson Enterprise to do business as opposed to others, the CEO said, “because we are second to none in the Federation in everything that we do. We provide an all-inclusive service. Some people do brokerage, some people do trucking, some people represent one shipping line or one airline. There is no other company around here that represents so many different pieces of the shipping puzzle. So when you come to us we actually provide solutions for you. Its not just about clearing your barrels and boxes but we actually provide solutions for you in terms of moving that box from Miami to Newton Ground in your home. We like to call ourselves the solution providers.”