Page 56 - The Summit of the Americas 2021

INSIDER

Logistics: WTDC’s diversification from core business delivers

added benefits

Miami’s family-owned Foreign Trade
Zone company WTDC, which specializes
in logistics for spirits for the duty free/trav-
el retail and cruise industries, diversified
its business as a result of the COVID-19
pandemic.
WTDC President & CEO Sean
Gazitua tells TMI that this expansion away
from its core duty free/travel retail business
has strengthened his company and better
positioned it for the future.
“The commodity that we handle is
spirits for the duty free and travel retail
industry and this virus shut it down. In
April and May last year there were a hand-
ful of spirits cases that left the warehouse.
Typically there are tens of thousands of
cases. So that was an eye-opener for us that
it would be a good idea to diversify a little Sean Gazitua, WTDC President & CEO
bit,” says Gazitua.
“Obviously our bread and butter is PPE imports. of WTDC Chile and logistics for renewable
spirits for the travel retail industry and will “We were able to help companies and energy.
continue to be in the future, but 2020 gave countries handle the supply chain manage- In October WTDC announced a
us an opportunity to look at our business ment for medical supplies. That was pretty strategic partnership with Empresas Per-
and diversify.” gratifying that we were doing something rot Group Inc., a premier Trucking and
WTDC saw a way to both stay busy good during the pandemic and were able Logistics Provider in Santiago, Chile to
and contribute to the greater good by to handle business. Our normal pipeline of create seamless connectivity for customers
handling logistics for needed medical sup- business froze because we had been focus- across their complementary domestic and
plies. WTDC assisted companies with the ing on spirits and cruise lines.” international logistics networks in the USA
hazardous transportation of hand sanitizer, Medical supplies were one of three and Chile. WTDC and Empresas Perrot
foreign-to-foreign shipments of COVID-19 key verticals WTDC focused on during the will be exclusive agents within each other’s
test kits, masks, medical equipment, and pandemic. The other two were the creation countries as part of the agreement.
“The Gazituas are Chilenos. We’re
from Chile. A partner contacted us to open
up WTDC Chile. Empresas Perrot are one
of the largest trucking companies in Chile
and they wanted to expand internationally.
Our family always wanted to open a busi-
ness in Chile. Like us, they are a family
business, and have been around for 80
years. We started speaking to each other via
zoom and we just connected: their family
values, our family values, their company
culture, our company culture. It just aligned
perfectly. As a result, we have really been
growing that trade lane from Chile to the
USA,” says Gazitua.
Renewable energy is the third vertical
WTDC focused on in 2020.
“We identified renewable energy as
a good business for the future. We are
focusing on solar, hydro, and wind and are
WTDC signed an agreement with ProChile and its partners to create seamless connec- providing ocean freight, warehousing, and
tivity for customers across their complementary domestic and international logistics U.S. Customs brokerage.”
networks in the USA and Chile.

The Virtual Summit of the Americas Issue April 2021 56