Create Flooring, known for its array of innovative SPC, waterproof laminate and hardwood flooring products, has announced the opening of its sister logistics company, Downwind Logistics. With its vast network of contacts and offices in China and Cambodia, Downwind was created to handle the import and export shipping needs for distributors, retailers and even other manufacturers serving the building materials industries.
Utilizing locations in Shanghai, China; Phnom Penh City, Cambodia; and Calhoun, Ga., Downwind Logistics offers a host of services, including: ocean shipping, port pick-up and delivery, container drayage, both FTL and LTL transload trucking and even temporary warehousing. The company can also provide clients with document handling pertaining to duties, entry or importer security filings (ISF). Downwind also works with shipping companies and suppliers in Vietnam and South Korea.
In short, Downwind Logistics does the heavy lifting. “We know how all the processes work because we are also import customers,” Candince Zhu, CEO of Muchsee Wood/Create Flooring and president of Downwind Logistics, told FCNews. “Customers don’t have the connections so they don’t know how the import industry works. We have experience dealing with brokers and we have experience sourcing overseas. We can help importers save money.”
It’s not just flooring interests that stand to benefit. “We can help companies import not only flooring but also furniture, cabinets and related hardware components,” Zhu explained. “We combine shipments in containers to build our buying power so we can reduce everybody’s freight costs.”
Ironically, some of the importers/potential clients Downwind Logistics is targeting could conceivably include competing shippers or manufacturers serving the same markets. And that’s just fine by Zhu. “The services we offer through Downwind Logistics are open to everyone, because at the end of the day it helps everyone, including us. It helps us save costs and we charge a fee for the services we provide. We have 15 years of experience being the customer on the other side; now we are the service providers.”
In the works for about a year now, Downwind Logistics has helped some clients get through a rough patch throughout the pandemic era. “Some distributors have utilized our services when they couldn’t get containers or space at the ports,” Zhu explained. “We have not had any problems getting space. It’s been working well.”
Soup to nuts
Once the containers land stateside, Downwind Logistics doesn’t stop there. The company provides off-loading, trucking and even temporary warehousing services for clients. “We have third-party warehouse companies that work with us,” Zhu explained. “We also offer LTL. Basically it’s all the services the customer might need. We charge them one price and then we handle everything right to their doors. They don’t have to worry about anything.”
But with recent trends showing an easing of issues companies have been dealing with at sea and at the ports—along with reductions in shipping costs for SPC and WPC—one might think Downwind Logistics is a concept that has come a little too late. Zhu, however, begs to differ.
“Yes, shipping costs are coming down, but the problem we’re seeing is it takes a long time for the shipping issues to normalize. People don’t realize that while the shipping costs might be coming down, the service levels have not improved. Even companies that do their manufacturing in the U.S. still need to import the raw materials.”
For more information on Downwind Logistics, call 877. 611. 9245.