Going concern

Blake Pottinger
President, CEO Anglo Canadian Shipping Co.

Company profile: Headquartered in Vancouver, Anglo Canadian Shipping Co. provides a range of cargo shipping services and acts as an agent for overseas ship owners. For its charter operations, it primarily manages shipping of forest products from the West Coast to the Mediterranean. Agency operations include shipping bulk cargoes, such as steel, to Europe, South America and Asia. The company has staff in Vancouver, Seattle and Portland, Ore., in addition to two representative offices in California. Annual throughput of transactions processed is $50 million.

Hot factor: Anglo Canadian Shipping has an interconnected network of offices to provide a one-stop coastwide solution for overseas ship owners that allows them to use one agent from Alaska to California. Marketing efforts in the US have been so successful that the company has grown at a rate of 30% a year for the past three years, due largely to new US business.

Cool projects: The company plans to further expand in the US and is well positioned for success withits parent company, International Shipping Co. Inc., being the largest West Coast regional operator.

In his own words: “Our core business is mature, so we have gone into other ventures outside it to develop new areas. There are always new challenges, be it acquisitions or changes in ownership, so you always have to be on your toes and thinking in new ways. You have to find your niche and try to develop it as much as you can.”

Rosie Lombardi