Bermuda Import & Export

Bermuda Import & Export (BIECO) is afamily-owned import business, started in 1949. Graham Fowle, thegrandson of the original owner and current company president,gradually expanded company lines, starting with the addition ofproduce and alcohol. Bermuda Import & Export now has 25employees and carries produce, seafood, groceries, alcohol, dry andfrozen goods, and some dairy and meat. The majority of goods areperishable items. Bermuda is a small market of 21 square miles; thecompany sells to all available outlets, including restaurants,hotels, resorts, clubs, grocery and convenience stores. There areno consumer retail sales.

In Bermuda, everything is imported – and nothingcomes into the island without some type of import fee/cost. BIECObrings in two containers of produce (not including seafood andalcohol) weekly. The containers usually arrive on Sunday night andMonday morning, and produce must be pre-cleared through H.M.Customs – Bermuda (Customs) in time for delivery to restaurants,shops, and hotels early on Monday morning. This requires a depositto be paid in advance on all pre-cleared items of 1½ times theirnormal duty rate.

The old system of managing tracking and invoicingof shipments through Customs was time and labor-intensive. Itinvolved a complicated spreadsheet, with manual entry of thedetails of each individual item. These details included (but werenot limited to) vessel information, voyage number, bill of lading,container information, date of arrival, Customs Procedural Codes,tariff numbers, country of origin, purchase order number, wharfagecharges (assessed against cargo, vessel’s stores, fuel and suppliesfor passage on, over, under or through any wharf) and vesseldetails.

David Potts, the company’s financial controller,says that the process took at least four hours (“if the person knewwhat he was doing,” he adds, wryly), and was fraught with potentialerrors. For example, a misplaced decimal point could potentiallyincur thousands of dollars in extra duty costs prior to beingrecalculated. Because items have various duty percentages (rangingfrom five to 22 ¼ percentage), calculations were often rounded upor averaged. If the work was not completed on time, it would delaydelivery of containers and cause possible damage to goods.

Finally, getting the Customs deposit (averaging$750) returned could take up to a month – after all thedouble-checking of calculations and adjustments for manual entryerrors.

Requirements:

The Board of Directors of Bermuda Import and ExportCompany has chosen you as an expert and consultant in the economyand international trade. You have a meeting with the board ofdirectors of the company to expose them to the expansion of thecompany and to enter the international markets and what the companyneeds in the coming period through:

1. Evaluate the capabilities of the company.
2. Understand the options of export distribution partners.
3. Understanding competitors in the market, in circumstances ofsupply and demand.
4. International product compliance requirements.
5. Export costs.
6. Pricing options for export and logistics options.
7. Export plan.
8. Trade agreements and their role in increasing exports.
9. How will the export, whether by obtaining a license for importand export or through third parties or what is the expectedscenario.
10. Export documents and export procedures.
11. Shipping and storage methods.

Notes:

- Your research should contain thelargest percentage coverage for the above mentioned points.

- Please, provide a good content,including charts and tables, and you can use the Internet and anymeans of assistance to present your point of view andsuggestions.

- The quality of written content is assessed, not quantity