Customers of Pangaea Logistics Solutions over the years might have been dealing with Phoenix Bulk Carriers, Nordic Bulk or American Bulk Transport, depending on which part of the owner’s business they encountered.
This is despite the fact that the dry bulk company went public in New York in 2013 under the Pangaea banner.
If that all seemed to create unnecessary confusion, well, the company’s management eventually arrived at that conclusion too. Now they are cleaning it up.
Executives told TradeWinds they have officially dispensed with the names used in the various sub-categories of the business and are marching forward with the Pangaea name.
Director of global chartering Courtney Renault appeared on a panel at the 20th annual Association of Ship Brokers & Agents cargo conference in Miami Beach, Florida, on Thursday simply representing Pangaea.
Speaking to TradeWinds on the sidelines afterwards about the reasons behind the change, she said: “At times over the years, it has been a little confusing. What’s Nordic? What’s Phoenix? What’s American Bulk Transport, which is the name we used in chartering in tonnage?
“At the same time, we have strong brands and we’re proud of them, so the decision to give them up wasn’t taken lightly. But we’ve been known to investors as Pangaea since the IPO, and now, with our further expansion into ports and logistics, it just seemed to be time.
“I guess you could ask what took us so long. But it’s hard to give up good brands.”
The Newport, Rhode Island-based company began notifying customers of the switch over the summer but had been making preparations internally well before that.
The process has been relatively seamless, although for some larger industrial counterparties it has necessitated a re-vetting of Pangaea as a business partner, Renault said.
Pangaea chief executive Mark Filanowski explained the initiative.
“While it may seem like a small change, we believe it’s an important one that aligns our group with better transparency, collaboration and continued commitment to providing best-in-class logistics service to our customers,” he told TradeWinds.
“While our shareholders have always known us as Pangaea since going public, commercially we’ve been known in the market by various names that reflect our growth story and evolution. This alignment of a single brand identity ensures we maximise the synergies within our business to continue our growth.”
Pangaea is known as a niche dry cargo specialist with a significant presence in the Arctic ice trade. Its work in that sector was launched under the joint venture Nordic Bulk, which had offices in Copenhagen. Nordic later became a fully owned subsidiary after the Pangaea IPO.
Pangaea chief operating officer Mads Boye Petersen played a large part in the growth of Nordic, but he said he is not sentimental about the name falling by the wayside.
“The main reason for this is internal: to align everyone internally to the shared company vision,” he said. “The customers will deal with the same people and get the same great service they always have. There’s much more to be gained by working together.”
