An experienced maritime service partner, Garrets International is dedicated to making life at sea plain sailing
Garrets International (Garrets) was founded in 1991 to offer a complete maritime provision and stores management service, facilitating seamless operations between ship owners and managers, and crew and suppliers. By 2015, the company was recognized as a world leader, supplying ships across the globe. Garrets became part of the Wrist Ship Supply Group in January 2016.
Operating in more than 700 ports and serving 35,000 seafarers worldwide, for more than 30 years, Garrets has provided a full provision and stores management service, consistently fueling better lives on board vessels across the globe. Partnering with all customers on budget management, nutrition guidance, chef education, and food waste reduction, Garrets’ mission is to provide expert care and make customers’ lives at sea better.
“The last year has been a dynamic and positive one for Garrets,” begins Hamish Cook, Managing Director. “There have been some changes in the leadership team with me joining and the implementation of a new structure that places greater focus on our operations and customer care. Alongside this, we continue to have an increased focus on our digital transformation. We’ve reviewed and realigned our operational structure to ensure we’re in the best position to leverage our teams, catering provisions, and management expertise.
Increased customer satisfaction
“We’ve also continued to focus on our global procurement activities and compliance to ensure the best value for clients and the crews on board their vessels. It’s very rewarding to see that these changes are driving increased satisfaction, which is reflected in our improved vessel retention rate. We’ve been focused on transforming our business via our digital platforms, and last year, we introduced our Gateway platform, which is our on-vessel digital ordering and management portal. We’ve concentrated on deploying that across the vessels we manage – and the feedback, from the vessel cooks and masters using it, has been overwhelmingly positive.
“Many are appreciating the simplification of the traditional workflow and the resultant savings in time, access to much greater management information, and the newly deployed stock-taking element. It’s giving us much greater insight into the inventory on board ensuring that vessels don’t run out of food and that the food is nutritionally balanced. This, in turn, continues to improve and simplify the day-to-day role of the cooks. Likewise, the vessel masters or captains are experiencing enhanced support when it comes to sourcing provisions and stores,” Hamish elaborates.
“Sustainability is a constant discussion point in business these days. Most organizations have net-zero targets or aspirations, and the maritime industry is no different. As a provider of maritime food provisions and stores, our aim is to support our customers to reach their goals. We strive to ensure our global supply chain is aligned with our customers’ ambitions as well as our own. The food system is such a large contributor to greenhouse gas emissions, and the UN estimates that approximately 30 percent of total global greenhouse gas emissions are generated by the food system, which includes agriculture, land use, production, transport and logistics. As a major provider of food to the maritime industry, it’s essential that we can report on the emissions from the food that we source, and as such, we’ve been refining how we do this. We’ve got a great digital portal that we use to report on greenhouse gas emissions from the food that vessels are buying, which is really enhancing the management information we’re able to give our customers.
Education and expertise
“The UN also estimates that almost one third of food produced globally is wasted. So, it’s a significant issue when you consider that such a staggering amount of food from farm to fork goes to waste. The nature of the maritime industry is such that people are on a vessel for a fixed amount of time between ports. Our management systems focus on ensuring each crew member’s daily allowance is both sufficient and nutritionally balanced while making sure the vessel cooks are not overproducing meals and contributing to food spoilage. Part of our service incorporates efficient meal programming and recipe planning to help cooks produce the appropriate amount of food for the number of people on board, with the overarching aim of minimizing food waste. As an integral element of our on-board management system, we provide data and report back to our customers on their food provision performance,” he explains.
Indeed, there are so many things a vessel can do, from a food production point of view, to utilize all the food purchased and cooked, each day. Garrets offers training to galley departments, where food waste management is included, presenting initiatives to prevent and reduce food waste from commercial shipping galleys through better food management processes.
Delivering exceptional value
Despite having joined Garrets only relatively recently, Hamish boasts significant sector experience. He was born in Australia and moved to the UK in 2010 before moving to Denmark in 2022. Hospitality trained, he spent a large part of his career in B2B food services, contract catering and facility service operations. “During that time, I was exposed to many markets, from traditional business and industry customers through to remote mining and resource operations, education and healthcare,” he continues. “For the last 17 years or so, I’ve been working on a global stage across countries in Asia Pacific, North America, the Middle East, Europe and beyond. In the six years leading up to the pandemic, I led a business that sourced and developed food concepts for the airline industry. We shipped food all around the world, and subsequently, I experienced a comprehensive grounding in transport and logistics, which was really enlightening.
“In the last three years, prior to joining Garrets, I worked for ISS, one of the world’s largest integrated facility service operations, as Group Head of Food Services. So, for me, Garrets and the maritime industry are a natural fit. My current role enables me to leverage much of my career experience from a catering, global logistics and food sourcing perspective. Although I’m reasonably new to my role, I’ve had plenty of time to review the business, and meet customers and suppliers, which has been an insightful experience. Now, I’m at the stage where we are starting to cement our strategy for the remainder of this year and as we go into 2025 and beyond. We’ve got a great customer base and partner network from a supply perspective. Our vision at this early stage is to continue our growth trajectory and make sure we are in a robust position to do so. We will work to deliver exceptional value to the relationships we have with existing customers as well as to new partnerships moving forward. We envisage achieving much of this by continuing to simplify our business operations and leveraging digital tools to make the lives of people at sea better, which is one of our mantras. We want to make sure that it’s easy for people to do business with Garrets.”
Positive impact
To Garrets, a better life at sea starts with availability and accountability. That’s why the company is present in every port with full access to fresh goods and high-quality items. It is why customers can always trust Garrets to deliver on time and on budget, no matter where or when. Garrets’ ambition is the success of its customers. To that end, the company truly partners with customers, not only on provisions and optimizing supply patterns, but also on nutrition, menu planning, personal development and much more. A better life is tied to health, responsibility, and ensuring proper nutrition. Through training and education, Garrets turns cooks into heroes. The company’s training and support services cover a wide range of galley crew training courses, nutritional guidance, and stock and supply management. This approach requires the company to keep exploring new ways to deliver exceptional service, seeking out new technologies to better meet customer requirements.
“We innovate and turn new ideas into action, taking pride in providing expert care for all seafarers across the globe,” Hamish asserts. “We’re using the remainder of this year to embed the changes that we’ve made to our operating structure to ensure that our customers are getting the best value from Garrets. We do that through competitive pricing but also by delivering the highest quality products and supporting our vessels’ operations. If we continue to achieve this, then I think we’ll be well positioned for growth into 2025.
“With growth comes greater responsibility in terms of enhanced customer numbers and crew members on board vessels around the world. As such, we want to positively impact those lives at sea. Of course, to fulfil growing volumes takes a bigger workforce, which gives us the opportunity to grow our team. We have a responsibility to our workforce to provide a great place to work, and to support our employees in their development, enabling them to benefit from the opportunity that progression brings,” he concludes.