John has had a lengthy career in all aspects of freight forwarding since the early 70’s. His career in freight forwarding began 2 years earlier, whilst working in Chesterfield as a sales clerk for an engineering company. Duties in the sales department included arranging shipping of overseas orders by sea freight predominantly. John always felt that the experience gained working in industry was the grounding needed for his next employment involved with freight forwarding.
John joined a Sheffield freight forwarding company in 1973 as an airfreight clerk, and rapidly gained further experience in arranging shipping from a freight forwarding perspective. He gained an accreditation at Manchester University by the forwarders governing bodies IATA/FIATA. His duties for the next 10 years were airfreight related, and he progressed to eventually running the airfreight department.
During the mid eighties John ventured into sales, but his employer was bought out by a Canadian forwarder and packing company. John believes that the change from UK ownership to Canadian helped him immensely, aiding him to gain additional training in the export and import business. In 1991 he was headhunted along with the majority of the Sheffield staff to form a new forwarding company. This was very successful, and eventually he managed the business as co-director for the owner. In 2004 John ventured out by himself to form a wholly owned forwarding company. Along with 2 full time staff members he built the companies forwarding work up before eventually selling to the staff in a management buyout in 2019.
Since this time John has worked for Paul at IFS as a forwarding consultant. His current position allows him to draw on a wealth of experience gained over 40 years in the industry to advise and promote the best forwarding practises.
John’s interests include walking, crown green and indoor bowling and following Chesterfield football club with one of his sons and grandsons. He also enjoys swimming regularly. John’s personality leads him to prefer to see the funny side of life.