American Shipping Group becomes TOTE

   The American Shipping Group unit of Saltchuk Resources said it is rebranding itself using the name TOTE Inc.
   TOTE will also organize its five businesses into three groups:

• TOTE Maritime consists of Totem Ocean Trailer Express, which operates a liner service between Washington and Alaska, and Sea Star Line which operates between Florida and Puerto Rico.
• TOTE Ship Management includes Interocean American Shipping, a technical ship management and ship crewing company.
• TOTE Logistics covers Alta Logistics, which is focused on Alaska and the Pacific Northwest, and Spectrum Logistics, which is based in Jacksonville, Fla. and provides a variety of logistics services, including nationwide trucking, warehousing and cross-dock operations, consolidation and deconsolidation services, and heavy-lift and project cargo handling.

   For now, each company will retain its name, logo and independent branding. The strengths of the individual companies will be enhanced by marketing and sales efforts for the overall portfolio by all TOTE Inc.-affiliated companies.
    “We felt the ‘America…’ name was somewhat limiting with our goal of expanding our logistics services beyond the USA. Totem Ocean Trailer Express (TOTE) has a very strong brand in the trade it services. It is highly respected so it was an easy decision to utilize that strong brand for the overall parent company branding,” said TOTE President Anthony Chiarello in a statement.
    “We will always be interested in expansion of our core maritime businesses – and our clients continue to ask us to provide more than just ocean transportation services,” he added, “TOTE Logistics is the vehicle by which our value added service offering will be managed and developed beyond what we offer today. Our hope with TOTE Ship Management is to expand both our government supported efforts as well as our private sector fleet management services.”
    In January, TOTE appointed James Armstrong as president for TOTE Logistics. He previously served as senior vice president and general manager of warehousing at Yusen Logistics (Americas).
    Kevin D. Kendrick was named chief commercial officer for TOTE Inc. Previously he was vice president of the Southeast Region for Damco USA.
    Earlier this week, the company named Peter I. Keller, former president of NYK Line (North America), as president of Sea Star Line.