EFM Global are experts in international logistics for complex and urgent projects such as all mode door to door shipping, customs liaison, ATA carnets, documentation, and liaising with local authorities. We hear from Mike Llewellyn himself as he wins his title in our Managing Director of the Year Awards 2024. Best International Logistics MD 2024: Mike Llewellyn I started EFM Global back in June 2000, it was built around a focus on hitting live music’s notoriously tight delivery windows during international touring. Over the past 24 years, we have developed similar specialist teams for exhibitions, sports, stage, screen, automotive and special projects. Our clients include touring music bands and artists, theatrical and touring productions, sports teams, trade fairs & exhibitions, the film & tv industry, owners of high value and concept cars and those who need white glove services. We have offices in North America, Europe, the Middle East and Australia, and we asked our colleagues across all our offices to tell us what it means to work at EFM. We turned that piece of work into what we call “The EFM Way” and it is proudly displayed in our reception areas and on our website. We believe the customer always comes first, we deliver excellence every time, and we go to the end of the earth for them. It’s our aim to give good value and provide peace of mind and, of course, we aim to be awesome. To be able to perform at the very highest level in a service industry, it is all about the team, it’s all about the people. When I started the company, I set the standard. I can teach new colleagues how to deliver excellence, but the individual must hold certain characteristics and personality traits. I look for someone who really cares and will go the extra mile to ensure delivery regardless of when. That includes weekends and public holidays. I have always been hugely into music, and I wanted to be a recording artist. I fronted a band, wrote and produced the songs, but didn’t get the break. In order to fund my musical aspirations at the time, I started my career at Heathrow airport, initially for Lufthansa in the warehouse where I learnt what was later to become the cornerstone of the business I own today. How to load and carefully secure equipment for international transport. I progressed in my career with Lufthansa and then joined All Nippon Airways in a sales function. In 1992, I realised that the rock star dream wasn’t going to happen, and general shipping didn’t inspire me, so I started my first company, “CDisc Express”. The CD had overtaken vinyl sales by the end of the eighties but in 1992 they also exceeded the sale of cassettes. Because I love music and had been a DJ for a while, I had and still have a very large vinyl collection which I wanted to replace with CDs. Back then your normal high street offered not much beyond the top twenty albums for sale. A club by the name of Brittania existed, whereupon on a monthly basis you would receive a booklet by post offering a selection of CDs to buy and have mailed to you. A better selection than the high street but still very limited. CDs were also very expensive at around £14.99 each, much higher in price than in Europe or the US and I saw an opportunity. For a £10.00 a year membership, I could provide you with pretty much any CD, delivered to your home for £9.99. The membership would be returned within the first three purchases. The company was starting to do well but I wasn’t earning enough to live off the income. I closed the company with a small profit in 1994 the very same year Jeff Bezos, with the benefit of the fledgling internet, started Amazon selling books. I was two years too early. While working with the airlines, I used to enjoy visiting a client, who at that time were the only company moving band’s equipment around the world and with my music interests that client became my favourite monthly sales call. When I shut CDisc Express, they reached out offering me a position to manage their UK sales, a dream job. In 1997, I joined some ex-colleagues from the UK and US who had set up in competition with aspirations aligned with mine. The role was my first directorship. After three years, it became apparent that the only way to truly deliver on my aspirations was to do it myself, and so EFM was established in June 2000. Contact Details: Contact: Michael Llewellyn Company: EFM Global Website: https://www.efm.global/
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjQyNzgzNA==