New York-based Freight Architect™ and NVOCC Jaguar Freight are marking 30 years in the business, having achieved significant transformation and growth for the past three decades.
Jaguar Freight was established in 1993 by Simon Kaye, whose family has been in the transportation business for three generations in the UK. Kaye and his father branched out to start Jaguar, with Kaye handling operations in New York, while his father worked in the London office. Kaye moved back to the UK after opening the company, then returned to New York in 2002 to help in the search for an office manager. However, he ended up staying in New York permanently, and it became Jaguar Freight's global headquarters.
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According to Kaye, shortly after starting the company, he quickly realized that Jaguar wasn't in the shipping and transportation business and that it was in the information business instead. This led to the company focusing on developing its online tracking and visibility system early on, during a time when online capabilities were still mostly in the realm of the global freight giants.
“We've always been focused on using technology to provide solutions for our clients and internal users. I'm a big believer in systems and processes, and people think our company is much bigger than it actually is because we're able to do things at such scale because of our systems and processes.”
This focus on technology has also helped it weather the disruption caused by the COVID-19 outbreak and resulting lockdowns in 2020, Kaye says. The shift to remote work happened before the outbreak unlike many companies around the world, this left the company in a competitive position as they did not need to adjust to such working conditions. Remote work allows the company to recruit from a wider talent pool and better support its employees. Over the past five years, Jaguar Freight has not had any employees leave, and it has grown its headcount significantly, all of whom are now distributed across the USA, Europe, Africa, and Asia.
“We had a very strong work-from-home program even before COVID, with our systems already in the cloud. So when the lockdowns came, we were able to seamlessly transition to working remotely. It was almost as simple as flicking a light switch. It worked so well that, in July 2020, I announced that we would no longer be returning to the office, and we've been 100% remote ever since.”
Kaye says that Jaguar Freight's success can be attributed to a “three-legged stool” philosophy of people, technology, and execution.
“A three-legged stool will always be stable, even on an uneven surface. We recruit the best people and treat them well, and then invest in technology to support our people internally and add value to clients externally. The third leg, which is execution, means doing the job right. Everything is useless if we can't move freight from point A to point B or if we fail to do it on time. If any one of the three is lacking, the stool falls over.”
Jaguar Freight's stability and reliability have allowed it to establish strong client relationships, including a major international cosmetics company that worked with Jaguar for 23 years.
Looking forward, Kaye says Jaguar Freight's big, hairy, and audacious goal (B’HAG) is to grow by 10 times in 10 years. The company is now in the second year of the 10-year plan, which involves growing the customer base, growing revenue and margin, developing its bespoke technology, and growing staffing levels, all at different rates.
“Our technological goal is to expand our CyberChain™ technology suite to encompass our entire operations. We aim to have everything begin and end in the platform, including banking, rates, shipment visibility, and procurement. Some aspects have already been integrated into the platform, but it's still a work in progress. Our biggest strength is that we're nimble and adaptable, which has been a big part of our success over the past 30 years, and hopefully take us through the next 30, as well.”
About Jaguar Freight
Jaguar Freight is a licensed freight forwarder and NVOCC and an expert in global supply chain logistics. The company is headquartered in Valley Stream, New York, United States, and was founded in 1993 by Simon Kaye. Jaguar Freight specializes in Global Freight Forwarding and Logistic Services, providing supply chain information visibility across the entire supply chain and transportation network.
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