Steve Ryan Midwest Sales Manager Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, Ltd. Judy Machado Director of Sales Northern Wicks

Interview with Steve Ryan

The Big VinCenz meets with Steve Ryan, Cary Low and Andrew Ang of Mitsui

At VinCenzo, we're quite proud of the tins we manufacture, but the production is only part of the job. In the words of Keith Armato, VinCenzo's CEO, "We can make the most innovative and stylish tins around, but they won't do anybody any good if we can't deliver them in a timely fashion." So to learn a little about VinCenzo's shipping partner, we recently sat down with Steve Ryan, the Midwest Sales Manager for Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, Ltd.

"We're a shipping company. We own the ships and containers, and we handle the crew and the routes and schedules," explains Ryan. "In fact, asset-wise, we're the largest shipping company in the world." Not only are they the largest, but they're also one of the oldest. Osaka Shosen Kaisha (OSK Line) was founded in 1884, and well over 100 years of history and experience have gone into forming the modern incarnation of the company. "One of the things that we offer is stability. We've been around for a long, long time, we know the business better than anybody, and we're certainly not going anywhere."

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A Mitsui container ship is loaded up and ready to sail.

In fact, stability in a shipping company is probably one of the most important things to an international tin manufacturer. As Ryan explains, "We're not a freight forwarder, buying up space where we can and reselling it. The fact that we own the assets means that we have complete control over what gets shipped... companies that work with freight forwarders are always in danger of being bumped if demand is high."

Gotta love the logo.

When asked what he thought was at the heart of Mitsui's relationship with VinCenzo, Ryan talked about loyalty. "I've been working with Keith [Armato] for many, many years, and I know he's gotten offers from other shipping companies, but he's always stuck by us and said that Mitsui is VinCenzo's shipping company. I appreciate that, and it means that I'm going to bend over backwards to make sure that we're always competitive, and that he gets the [shipping] space he needs."