November 18 - Felipe Casta

The years since the company was established in 2006 have been the culmination of a personal project by Castaños to obtain professional independence, based on his two decades plus experience. He has now consolidated the position of VN Navegacion with a leading position as broker, charterer and shipping agency. The company also moved recently to more suitable office accommodation in the heart of the commercial centre of Bilbao, with space for the expected expansion of the team.

VNN started operations in 2006 as a general broker and shipping agency, but has become specialised in non-containerisable general cargo and projects. From iron, steel and wood to energy plants, both solar and gas, wind turbines, transformers, rail wagons and metal structures. And as a broker it is not limited to functioning only in the Spanish market, but has been active in Korea, Mexico, Morocco and Algeria amongst others.

VNN says that every task it undertakes is tailormade in conjunction with its wide list of partner ship owners, reliable agents and stevedores. Through this network VNN is able to offer agency and stevedoring services throughout Spain, as each of its partners has a strong foundation in a specific port.

The company also says that notwithstanding the world economic crisis, it has been able to achieve better than satisfactory results, and where some cargoes have declined, notably steels and wood, others have not been affected and continue to generate healthy revenues for VNN.

"Now the objective is to maintain what we have," says Felipe. " 'It's easy to arrive, but difficult to remain' as the saying goes, so in the immediate future we will be concentrating on maintaining our existing customers. It is well known that it is more efficient to retain existing customers than spend time casting around for more and more new ones."

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