A shipping life

Frank Wellnitz has had a long and colourful career in shipping and beyond his work with the CSA. Frank started his maritime carrier in 1962 at a shipping agency based in Bremen, Germany. After receiving his certificate in Maritime Transport Management, he and his wife Heidi emigrated to Canada in 1965.

For a short while he worked as a Forwarder and then joined the Toronto office of a German company supervising Bulk Metal Concentrate Exports to world markets. In 1969 he joint Falconbridge Nickel Mines as maritime transport co-ordinator, this included transport of construction material to build a smelter in Santo Domingo. With the construction winding down he was transferred there in 1971, setting up and managing a transportation department with about 25 local employees, covering all imports to keep the nickel smelter running and based on his distribution plan, exports to world markets of a product called ferronickel. Learning Spanish became a must.

Management

After three years with Falconbridge as one of 120 expatriates training local management, he was not ready to go to back to the cold and snowy Toronto. He joined Hapag-Lloyd owners’ representative, stationed in San Juan. This was the time when the industry was watching the creation of the CAROL service – a joint venture between French, Dutch, English and German carriers inaugurated in 1975.

In 1977, Frank was offered a position as line manager for CAROL at the Hamburg head office – an offer very difficult to refuse. After three years in Germany, he convinced the company that he can better serve the company outside of the country. He was transferred to the Miami office and later became representative for the Caribbean Basin countries, travelling often more than 200 days a year.

In August of 1983, Frank was offered and accepted a management position at Baez & Rannik (B&R), a shipping agency in Santo Domingo. In 1984 together with B&R, he returned to San Juan to create a shipping agency, Agencia Navemar de Puerto Rico, which was sold to Perez y Cia in 1991.

Invited by CGM, Frank wrote a business plan for Caribbean inter-island transport and incorporated Caribbean General Maritime (CAGEMA). The concept was to maintain reliable inter-island connections, which (the West Indies Shipping Corporation (WISCO had given up for lack of volume. This could only work with the support of extra regional volumes coming from Europe, the Far East and South America. A joint venture with Tropical Shipping included volumes from Florida, making it necessary to establish an office in Miami. Frank moved there in 1996.

Employed

His focus continued to be inter-Caribbean services. Vessels employed by global carriers kept getting larger and individual port calls continued to dwindle. He saw a desperate need and an opportunity to establish hub ports and distribution networks.

He found a partner and vessel provider in Bremen’s Harren & Partner and supporters in the Hapag-Lloyd and ZIM. Caribbean Feeder Services (CFS) – Frank’s simple concept of slots sold on vessels providing a service network – is today a recognized entity. After 55 years in the industry Frank left CFS in 2017.