NYK rolls out Yusen Logistics Brand in U.S.

NYK rolls out Yusen Logistics Brand in U.S.    NYK Group has combined its NYK Logistics (Americas) and Yusen Air & Sea Service (U.S.A.) into a new company called Yusen Logistics (Americas), effective Friday.
   The move follows the rebranding of the combined companies in Japan as Yusen Logistics last October.
   Japan’s largest shipping company said the combined subsidiaries will offer full end-to-end service, including origin cargo management, ocean freight forwarding through its Double Wing Express brand, airfreight forwarding, warehousing, reverse logistics, surface transport and integrated supply chain activities.
   Globally, Yusen Logistics will employ more than 17,000 staff across 412 offices and facilities and manage over 22 million square feet of warehousing.
      In the Americas, Yusen Logistics will have more than 60 offices throughout North and South America. It will employ some 2,000 staff and operate 4.7 million square feet of warehousing.
      The new company is headed up by Masaki Tanaka, chairman; Kazuo Ishizuka, president and chief executive officer; and Michael Noone, executive vice president and chief operating officer.
      NYK laid out plans for deepening the scope of its global logistics business back in October 2009 in the midst of the global recession.
   While the NYK name is better known in the United States, the company wanted to 'create a strategy that would allow it to be more flexible,' explained James Craig, senior vice president sales and marketing at Yusen Logistics (Americas).
   Use of the Yusen name in the U.S. market will give the logistics unit 'a clearer, autonomous identity,' he said, so the subsidiary is less likely to be viewed simply as an extension of NYK's container shipping business.
   Yusen is large in Asia, but small in the U.S. market. NYK Logistics is the better known brand in the United States.
   While both companies provided ocean forwarding, about 70 percent of Yusen Air and Sea's revenues came from air-cargo forwarding with the remainder from ocean forwarding and custom house brokerage.
   In contrast, about 65 percent of NYK Logistics' revenues came from domestic transportation and distribution, 20 percent from warehousing and the balance from international forwarding and origin consolidation.