Transcription of Petur Peterson for the show Maine, Iceland & the World Beyond #168
Lisa: This is Dr. Lisa Belisle and you’re listening to Love Maine Radio. Show number 168. Maine, Iceland, and the world beyond. Airing for the first time on Sunday, November 30, 2014. Have you seen the name Eimskip on Portland’s waterfront? Transporting inbound items, such as German chocolate and outbound products like Maine blueberries, this Icelandic based company has provided a boost to the Maine economy. One that will continue to strengthen as we maximize our international exposure.
Today we speak with Eimskip station manager, Peter Peterson, Janine Cary, President and State Director of International Trade at the Maine International Trade Center. And Dana Eidsness, Director of the Maine North Atlantic Development Office. Thank you for joining us. Having lived outside the city of Portland for most of my life, I am somewhat familiar with the Portland waterfront. When something new comes along, it’s of great interest to me. Today we have an individual with us on Love Maine Radio that’s going to talk about some of the new things that are happening along the Portland waterfront.
This is Peter Peterson, who is Skip’s Portland Station Manager. Thank you so much for coming in today.
Peter: Thank you for having me.
Lisa: People who are driving on the Casco Bay Bridge, who look down towards the water on the Portland side, they see big containers that say Eimskip. It’s E-I-M-S-K-I-P.
Peter: Absolutely. You pronounced it right.
Lisa: Thank you. What does that mean? Who are you and where do you come from?
Peter: Well, Eimskip was founded as the Icelandic steam ship company in 1914. With participation of about 20 percent of the population who is part of us gaining more independence. We were then currently ruled by the Danish crown. They controlled all shipping to and from the island of Iceland. In 1914, this happened and the Icelandic steam ship company, Eimskip of Iceland was founded.
Lisa: What is the relationship between … well, why is there a relationship between Portland and Iceland? Why did that become important? I know Sophie Nelson has written about this in the Old Port Magazine. But tell me more about that.
Peter: Well, basically, the reason why Eimskip moved to Portland was basically a simple business decision. We had been looking for an opportunity to find a future place in New England. Eimskip has been sailing … Our first sailing to the US was in 1915. We had called on ports like New York, Richmond, Norfolk, Boston. Two years ago we were still sailing to Norfolk. There was pre-dominantly started because of … We started there because there was a Navy base in Iceland and we moved a lot of goods for the Navy to Iceland. That’s why we went down to Norfolk.
Then we went to Everett in Massachusetts, in Boston. In the Boston area. We needed to find a way to cut down on, or just reduce this to one port-o-call in the US. We looked at other options. We looked at staying in Everett. We looked at going to another port. Then Portland was here and was ready. We can go over the story a little bit, if you want me to continue just telling you about that. Well, so the state of Maine had invested a lot of money and a lot of effort into providing or creating the facility that you see today. Of course, they had been trying to find customers so to speak.
We had been looking at another port that was south of Boston and then Portland came up. They actively pursued to get Eimskip here and we came here and saw the infrastructure was good. The port was more or less ready for us. Of course, they were ready and willing to do some more infrastructure changes. We do move a lot of temperature controlled cargo, so that needed to be facilitated with electrical plugs, et cetera. And some changes with warehousing and other stuff. When all that was said and done, it was a perfect match for us. It was good for a little small niche carrier like we are. We decided to start selling here in March of 2013.
Lisa: I believe that the Scotia Prince used to run from Portland to Yarmouth, Nova Scotia. That was the big ferry dock. I remember when they did put all of this investment into the Scotia Prince ferry terminal and then the Scotia Prince left and stopped going back and forth. Clearly it was important for Portland to bring business to its waterfront. How is it that a company from Iceland would find out about Portland, Maine?
Peter: Well, all ports, they go to shows and they advertise. It’s not a big world, so to speak. When we had actually had one experience of coming here way back in 2007, if I remember. That was with service that basically was for, we were assisting another entity. That didn’t work out. Then it was a totally different situation there. I mean, we were changing our network. We were looking for shorter, or a way to move our freight faster and shorter to Europe and to Iceland. We were looking for a way to open up new possibilities for us to gain access to a market where we could grow the so-called Trans Atlantic business.
Portland was just fit for that. There’s huge growth potential here for us. We came here with our current freight. We were not here because we needed to find some business. We already had our current business. We stayed with that volume and have grown. Our plan is to grow even further. But the main why we went here was that Eimskip wanted to find that place, find the place in New England. We wanted to shorten our transit time. We wanted to be more competitive on the Trans Atlantic market, and therefore be able to increase our volume.
In regards to our transit time to Iceland, it was very important that we were going to reduce that. To provide the Icelandic market with better service. Portland was ready with all the infrastructure. It was willing to work with us and we just thought it was a fascinating place to start in.
Lisa: What is the difference between going from Iceland to say Norfolk and Iceland and Portland? What’s the difference in transit time or distance?
Peter: Well, it takes about a day and a half or two days to sail down to Norfolk. Something like that. It’s quite a distance. Also in Norfolk, Norfolk is a very large port. It’s in the center of, so to speak, in the center of the north east coast. A very large hub. Eimskip is a small carrier. With our network in the North Atlantic, sailing up the coast, up to Canada as well, up to Iceland and then connected there to the North European market, it basically didn’t allow us any real chance of getting any Trans Atlantic freight that was non-Icelandic related.
That on top of us sailing down there cost a lot of money. So we needed to find another place. So that’s the reason really.
Lisa: What I’m hearing then is that Portland was attractive because it is closer. It doesn’t take as long to get across the Atlantic. And also it’s smaller. You were able to more immediately have access to transportation that would get your goods to other places?
Peter: Well, basically, as well, if you look at Maine and you see where Maine is, then you notice that if you are exporting out of Maine, you have a few options. You have an option to move your freight down to Boston or you have an option to move your freight down to New York or up to Montreal. I mean, that just gives you a little bit of an idea that putting a container ship here, providing access to 350 million plus market in Europe, is going to be very cost effective for Maine businesses.
The cost of in-land transportation in the US is high. We reduce that. We also provide access to a market that was maybe not accessible because of the fact that the freight needed to go down to New York and be transported for a lot of money. It costs a lot of money to move a full container down to New York for example. What we are now providing is that we’re providing service for Maine companies let’s say to Rotterdam or [Hamford 00:12:53], giving you immediate access to like we say a 350 million people market. With the cost that is maybe comparable with moving your freight down somewhere south.
Meaning, if you’re just looking at the domestic market. If you’re just looking at the domestic market, now you all of a sudden see, OK, well, now we have maybe a chance to sell our produce overseas. We can be more competitive because our cost is less. Now we can compete with somebody that might be closer to the other major ports. That’s a huge opportunity for main and main companies. They’ve already started exploiting that. Not, exploiting, that’s not a correct word. They’ve already started, they’re seeing the benefits and are moving with us.
Lisa: Tell me what types of things you’re bringing over from Iceland or from Europe and what types of things you’re bringing over from Maine? What types of things are going back and forth?
Peter: Well, we do a lot of temperature controlled cargo. Most of the cargo, if we talk about in-bound then it’s not just coming from Iceland. It’s Trans Atlantic freight. It’s coming from Northern Europe. It’s coming from Scandinavia. We do move a large volume of fish from Norway. We actually do move a large volume of containers that are filled with chocolate from Germany. That’s temperature controlled, so we go from minus, now I’m going to speak in Celsius, minus 24 degrees Celsius to 14 degrees Celsius. We can control the temperature in our containers.
We do move quite a bit of water from Iceland. That is two brands. Iceland Glacial and Iceland Spring. I think they’re good volume. Then other goods. We’ve been just now moving some equipment for the ski resorts around here. We’ve been doing that for the past months on every vessel. Equipment for breweries and other raw materials from Iceland that are going further down, maybe into Chicago and to Ohio. We move that by rail from here. There’s all kinds of products.
Out of Maine, Icelanders are starting to buy from Maine. We’ve seen a huge increase in that. Especially the retail stores in Iceland. They are purchasing products here in Maine. They’re purchasing from wholesalers or from companies here. Then we’ve been moving quite a bit of blueberries, just recently. I think they were kind of … I think the blueberry market fluctuates, where they’re selling the products, et cetera. But we have high hopes for that. Maine blueberries are of course, they’re very good. I like them.
As well as other products from Maine producers. I really don’t want to talk about any companies specifically or anything like that. But we see a steady growth and today, to tell you the truth, these last two weeks, we’ve been more or less swamped with [inaudible 00:16:55] requests and questions about our services. It’s been really busy and we have really high hopes that the volumes out of Maine and into Maine for Maine companies will increase quite a bit in the next months.
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Lisa: How does Maine compare to Iceland as far as the type of people living there? The climate? What is it about Maine that is so interesting to people from Iceland or people from Europe? Why would they buy things like blueberries? Or Maine products?
Peter: The Maine blueberries, you know, if you try them, they kind of sell themselves. You just have to get that first taste. They’re absolutely fabulous. I mean, Eimskip is not just an Icelandic company. We’re Scandinavian. We’re all over the world. We have offices in China. We have offices in Vietnam and all over Europe and Sweden, Denmark, in Norway. We have a large operation in Norway actually. We do operate vessels on the coast of Norway. All the way up to Russia, to [inaudible 00:20:08].
We have offices in the UK. We have offices in Germany. In Belgium. In Holland. In France. In Spain. In Italy. In Portugal. I can keep on counting. There’s quite a bit of operation all over the world. Of course, being from, or us being a Scandinavian company really, I mean or a European company and Scandinavian is that yes, Maine is attractive to us after we’ve come here and started to understand it. I mean, there’s similarities.
People are close. I think compared to other states maybe, they’re a little bit closer to us than somebody from maybe Texas. You know. Obviously because you’re closer really, you are. And you’re in the North Atlantic. You’re used to a harsher environment, et cetera. I think those are similarities that I think are … People are nice here. I really do think that it’s a great environment. That’s basically, I think that connection is because of the ocean, because of being in the north, used to the cold weather, the ways that we do … How we make it nice. Keep the lights up and hot stove and it’s similar over there. I think those are the similarities, if I can point some out.
Lisa: How has it been for you coming over here and working in Maine?
Peter: For me, it’s been great. I actually moved from New York. I’d been living in Long Island, New York for about eight years. Basically I didn’t move from Europe. I didn’t come from Iceland directly into Maine. But the transition, the change to come up here from New York was really interesting and I really liked it. I think the city surprised me. I wasn’t expecting such a lively place, really. The restaurants here, and I need to explore more of the culture. Of course, I’ve only been here a year and a half, or something like that.
Most of the time has been focused on work. Still we’ve had the pleasure of enjoying the great culture and the great restaurants in Maine. And in Portland especially. Skiing and the outdoors a little bit.
Lisa: Well, we appreciate the work that you’re doing to help our Maine economy, which I know is only going to be helpful to the economy of Iceland, Scandinavia, and the other ports-o-call around the world that you’ve described Eimskip being involved with. How can people find out about Eimskip and the work that you’re doing?
Peter: We’ve been fortunate that we’ve been in the news quite a bit over here and so companies have seen us and people have seen what we’re about. We’ve been active in getting our word out. We’ve had the absolute fantastic support from [mid-see 00:23:52], the Port Authority, from the governor, from the city of Portland, all over. Everything has been positive. Individuals that have been working really hard within those organizations that have done a fantastic job of getting us established or out there. Things like what’s happening in regards to, for example, in [mid-see 00:24:25] …
Lisa: Maine North Atlantic Development Office.
Peter: The North Atlantic Development Office is looking at a lot of opportunities for Maine businesses in the North Atlantic. There’s a lot of things that people don’t know that are opening up and happening in the North Atlantic. It’s not just cold and gloomy. There’s business opportunities there. That and trade missions to Europe and to Iceland, to the UK, we were participants in that. Other things that have happened … We for example last year, we threw a little bit of a Christmas party. We decided to have a Christmas party on, I think it was the middle of November, and the date was the 6th of December, and we had 300 people.
We decided to support the Center for [inaudible 00:25:34] Children. We were able then to raise about $35,000 to $40,000 for the Center for [inaudible 00:25:40] Children. 300 people. Took a lot of effort for two weeks, actually, to plan all this. It worked perfectly. We are doing the same on the 12th of December. We’re actually having a party for our customers and for not only our customers, but customers, or our vendors.
Customers and people in the area. Of course, by invitation, so it’s not an open party. We call it a party. It is a party. We’re trying to have fun and at the same time, give back to the community. Eimskip does that everywhere. We do that very strongly in Iceland and we’ve started doing that here. We have high hopes for this year in regards to the money we’ll raise for the charity.
Lisa: Peter I’m really impressed with the work that Eimskip is doing and the work that you’ve been doing. People who would like to read more about Eimskip can read the article by Sophie Nelson in Old Port Magazine, which is Commerce, Culture, and Connection: Icelandic Shipping Company Eimskip Makes Portland Its North American Home and Maine Shifts Its View to the North Atlantic. So I hope people will take the time to do that and to find out more about the work that you’re doing. As someone who has lived in Maine a long time, I really appreciate all of the opportunities that you’re bringing to our state and I hope that our state can continue to reciprocate.
Thanks so much for coming in and being on Love Maine Radio. We’ve been speaking with Peter Peterson, Skip’s Portland Station Manager.
Peter: Thank you.