 Kutch Shipping Agency has a 22-year history, is headquartered in Kandla India, and has offices in New Delhi, Mumbai, and Ludhiana. The company started out providing port services in major western ports of India, such as stevedoring, custom clearance, bulk handling, container line operations, etc. Their services now incorporate liner services, groupage, part load and full load operations to any part of the World.
After several months of keeping in contact, I had the chance to visit the company and the Manager of the Mumbai office-Mr. Hosang Karai. On the evening of January 22, 2008, Mr. Karai took my colleagues-Mr. Chris Han and Ms. Cindy Guo and me to his cricket club. At first I thought it was just a place for playing cricket, but in fact we also found the club had a swimming pool and other leisure facilities.
Mr. Karai led us to a dining room where I only found men, business men, and male waiters. It was a very good place for networking and socializing. After he told me the fee for club membership, I told him that with the same amount of money I could buy a golf course in China. At that time, I believed he must be very rich, because most of senior managers in the Chinese freight industry couldn't afford such services in a private club. We talked a lot about the forwarding business in India, China, and other parts of the world. He explained to us that most Indian companies are willing to buy their own property instead of renting. Therefore, if you want to cooperate with a reliable Indian forwarder, you should check if they own property.
The next morning I called a cab to go to his office, which is located near Colaba Circle in the Fort area of Mumbai, where many other forwarders have offices. Surprisingly, the office was very small and was situated in a very run down district. I doubted whether this man was the same person I met with the day before. However, the fact is that Mumbai is the most densely populate city in the world and the market there has been booming for years. The housing prices are even comparable to those in Shanghai. Owning property there is a symbol of a businesses prestige and creditability. It's totally different from the market in China. I hope that Mr. Karai has the opportunity in the future to meet with Chinese forwarders in Shanghai, Shenzhen and other cities, to find out why Chinese forwarders prefer to rent property, and to experience what their working environment is like. My company-JCtrans Logistics Technology Ltd. will be moving to the Tech. Park in Dalian due to the rapid acquisition of new employees. The growth of our company is unbelievably fast, and we are continuously looking for more space.
(Richard Zhang from Mumbai India)
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