SUPPLYCHAINP.O.V. Brian Waite: Pump Company Freight Manager Takes a Multimodal Approach as told to Karen Kroll
A s a kid, I had a keen fascination with aircraft and wanted to pursue a career at the airport, although I didn’t know exactly what that would look like. I had two short-term work roles at British Airways, which led me in the direction of a career in logistics. After completing the International Air Transport Association training scheme, I was employed by Forwardair (in the UK). Having started in the industry as a trainee, I was keen to learn all aspects of freight forwarding. By moving through several forwarding departments, including air, sea, road, and rail, I gained the knowledge I needed to further develop my career. For example, I gained experience managing the nancial side of the business and also recruited a business development manager to drive sales. That gave me the experience I needed to manage my own branch of ce, which I did at GEODIS. SHIPPING SUSTAINABLY AT WMFTS As a responsible supplier, our customers and their customers look to us to help them reduce their carbon footprint globally. Since mid-2025, one of our main focus areas has been shipping more sustainably and reducing our freight expenditure. A lot of stakeholders are involved, but the logistics piece of this is almost complete. The most dif cult part of this jigsaw puzzle is the planning and procurement. With air freight, we could have a shipment on the other side of the world
WHAT I DO Monitor freight spend, analyze carrier performance, and at times, consider alternative carriers to transport shipments from WMFTS’ seven manufacturing sites located across the globe.
in 24 hours. With ocean transport, we’re looking at around 30 or 40 days. The procurement and planning teams have to ensure we have enough product in stock to serve all our customers. Additionally, we need to make sure we hold extra stock for those goods that will be sent by sea. We’ll still have to air freight certain products. For example, if a customer has a machine breakdown, we may need to use air to ship repair parts. But we’ll rst look at ocean freight. We carried out a trial ocean shipment over the holiday period. Obviously, there was a bit of work to make this happen. Among other steps, I reviewed the global destinations with the highest airfreight volumes from each site and then analyzed cost and carbon usage data to understand the potential savings. After presenting this data to our stakeholders, it was agreed we would convert orders from air to sea where possible. We collaborated with our planners, supply chain, and production to ensure orders placed on sea have
“ No matter your position, you should be able to work well with people at any stage. ” BRIAN WAITE Global Freight Manager, Watson-Marlow Fluid Technology Solutions (WMFTS), a pump manufacturer
10 Inbound Logistics • August 2026
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